Document Type : Research Paper
Highlights
1-Introduction
Despite the passage of four decades since the dismantling of the authoritarian system and the severing of previous legal and political relations due to the Islamic Revolution, the nature of political competition from the point of view of political and religious jurisprudence remains ambiguous. A review of the literature of the Sunni world, which has examined the term "political competition", shows that despite the spread of the wave of democracy in Arab and Islamic societies, they have examined it less from the point of view of jurisprudence and more on the non-authoritarian structure. Examining the articles of the constitution of some of these countries also shows that they still consider political power to be communal and tribal and they do not open a way for other sections of the society to enter it. What are the characteristics of political competitions within the political system and how can political groups and parties engage in moral and civil competition instead of competing against the political system within it? There are relatively unanswered questions, the lack of clarification of which has had a negative impact on the general fate of the theory of Islamic democracy, which is interpreted as religious democracy in Iran. Although the theory of religious democracy was an idea for our transition from authoritarian tradition to democratic tradition, but the sides of this theory lack a clear pattern, especially in the field of political competition, and for this reason, its validity has been questioned. That people should participate in their destiny, that the party is like a machine that transforms a natural person into a dignified, moral and purposeful citizen; They are realized with the assumption that the principle of political competition is taken into account in religious knowledge and political thinkers emphasize it: "The essence of democracy is more visible in political competition than political participation." Even the political participation of the people in an election does not guarantee the existence of democracy. "How many non-democratic systems have succeeded in summoning the vast majority of people to the election stage? On the other hand, the essence of democracy lies in competition and pluralism."
2-Method and Theoretical Framework
So far, there have been few explanations about this issue, which probably cannot establish the theoretical basis of political competition in Islamic political jurisprudence. The analysis of political competition from the point of view of political jurisprudence requires that we remove it from the metaphor of war and confrontation and reconstruct it in the logic of games (competition in charity) and in this way impose the jurisprudential rules governing halal games on it. Why do we do this and examine the political competition regarding "Al-Sabq and Al-Ramaye"? Nowadays, when talking about political competition, three types of competition are usually mentioned: political competition against the system, political competition with the system, and political competition within the system. The meaning of political competition in this article is its third meaning, which is placed between the other two types, and it can also be defined based on the accepted norms of that system. Political actors should not exceed those limits and respect them, and of course, the political system should accept such a competition and does not limit them.
Therefore, the meaning of political competition within the framework of the system is: "any kind of open attempt within the framework of the system, deliberately and relatively durable and peaceful, whether irregular or organized (institutional) between political groups and individuals, that this confrontation goes beyond the limit of disagreements and ordinary and temporary disputes and appears in the form of more stable fronts and confrontations within the framework of the political system".
3-Discussion
By this definition, political competition is an open dispute over seizing power. It is about taking power that must be regulated within the values of a political system, otherwise it will cause war and internal conflicts. The overviews of this article show that if we consider political competition and not political participation to be the cornerstone of democracy, then we can more easily think about the causes and factors of the stagnation of democracy in the Islamic world. Undoubtedly, democracy in the Islamic world has many historical and sociological problems, but the lack of a competitive space between different sections of society, which is the result of political blockage, has caused a lot of damage to democratic processes. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is the lack of explanation of political competition from the Islamic point of view, which has practically distanced Islamists from democratic competition with other actors. What is the approach of Islamic jurisprudence to the issue of political competition? And how does he analyze it in the Islamic State system? They were important questions that were considered in this article. Our effort in the field of political competition is to be able to clarify the general logic of the games, both political and non-political, and the rules governing it.
4-Conclusion and Suggestions
The competition of political parties and groups to seize power is neither condemned nor commended. The condition of optimal competition is the effort to provide the public interests of the religious community, and the Islamic system should avoid the single-party system and provide the competition of all political groups and accept their competition within the framework of Islamic Sharia.
