A Jurisprudential–Legal Analysis of the Relationship between the Daʿāʾim al-Islām Narration on Walāyah and the Principle of the Supreme Obligation to Preserve the System in the Thought of Imam Khomeini (s)

Abstract

The preservation of the system is a frequently used expression and, at the same time, a concept with a central role in the political–jurisprudential thought of Imam Khomeini (s), to the extent that he introduces it as one of the most obligatory of obligations. Meanwhile, the narration “Islam is built upon five… and walāyah is their head,” known as the Daʿāʾim al-Islām narration, presents walāyah as the foremost of all pillars of religion. The main question of this study is as follows: if walāyah is the head of religion and the guarantor of the realization of its other pillars, how can the preservation of the system be regarded as the most obligatory of obligations and even be considered prior to walāyah? Aiming to clarify the relationship between these two propositions, this study first examines, through a descriptive method, the jurisprudential foundations of the Daʿāʾim narration and the status of walāyah, and then investigates the rational and textual foundations of the obligation to preserve the system from the perspective of Imam Khomeini. It will subsequently analyze the conditions and characteristics of the system whose preservation is obligatory, including divine legitimacy, the capacity to establish the Sharia, justice, observance of the interests of the ummah, and the Islamic character of its structure. The findings of the study indicate that walāyah as a pillar and head, and the system as its context and protector, are not contradictory concepts. Rather, the preservation of the system, as the most obligatory of obligations, refers to a practical necessity for the realization of walāyah and other religious rulings. Accordingly, the system whose preservation is obligatory is not just any system, but one that possesses public acceptability, religious legitimacy, justice, and the capacity to establish the Sharia.