What is Vilayat? And who is a faqih? There is no consensus among scholars as to the meaning of these terms. The term Vali appears in multiple contexts in the Quran. In its functional meaning, it means protector, safe keeper, guardian, overseer. When I was a child, India was still a British colony and some Indians referred to England as Vilayat. The Sufis interpret it to mean one who is close to God (one whom Allah has favored with His closeness and His Grace, hence the term Awliya Allah). There is also a difference of opinion as to whether the term Vilayat means the safekeeping and protection of religious affairs or that it includes temporal and political affairs as well.

And where does the Vali derive his legitimacy from? The Qur’an states: “O you who have certainty of faith! Obey Allah and obey the Messenger, and (follow) those among you who are endowed with Amr” (4:59). This Ayat forms the foundation and provides the point of departure for the formulation of Islamic rule. Allama Iqbal and Ayatullah Khomeini both start from this foundation. However, the analogy ends here. It was the genius of Iqbal that he interpreted the term Amr to mean directed energy, thereby giving it a transcendental meaning as an action that derives its legitimacy from Divine law “There is no power (energy in motion) nor is there any force (applied energy) except from Allah”. (The Qur’an) Khomeini, by contrast, interprets the term to mean authority. For Iqbal the “directed energy” came from a legislature elected by universal suffrage. Here Iqbal stood at the confluence of Western liberal thought and Islamic traditionalism. By contrast, Khomeini‘s ideas were an exposition of the traditional Shii schools which maintain that authority flows from the Quran, the Prophet, and after him through the Imams and those who have inherited the mantle of the Imams.

In applying their ideas to their own societies, both Iqbal and Khomeini faced specific problems. Iqbal lived in British India wherein Muslims formed a minority. As evidenced from his classic work, The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, Iqbal’s solution was to seek a separate homeland wherein a legislature elected by popular vote would be Muslim dominated. This was the conceptual origin of Pakistan. Khomeini, by contrast, was faced with a monarch, who albeit a Shia Muslim, was a despot and a dictator. Khomeini had to delegitimize the rule of a king before he could offer his own Wilayet e Faqih as a substitute for kingship. Khomeini did this by extrapolating the meaning of Wilayet e Faqih and excluding the rule of kings and sultans from its scope.

“Islamic government is not a form of monarchy, especially not an imperial system”, Khomeini said, “In Islamic governments, unlike monarchical and imperial regimes, there is not the slightest trace of vast palaces, opulent buildings, servants and retainers, private equerries, adjutants to the heir apparent, and all other appurtenances of monarchy that consume as much as half of the national budget”. He wrapped up this argument in theological terms: “Islamic government can therefore be defined as the rule of divine law over men… In this form of government, sovereignty belongs to God alone and law is His decree and command”. Quoting Imam Sadiq, he states “ The Imam forbids all recourse to illegitimate governments, including both their executive and their judicial branches. He forbids the Muslims to have recourse in any of their affairs to kings and tyrannical rulers”. Thus Khomeini framed his contest with the Shah as one between “rule by divine law” and “an imperial system”. It is not hard to see how the message was received in the bazaars of Tehran and Tabriz.

There are similar differences of opinion about the term faqih. The tenth century scholar Imam Tarmidhi used the term to mean one who has acquired knowledge of both the internal aspects as well as the external aspects of religion. Khomeini accepts this definition but expands it to include not only knowledge but the ability to rule. “The qualifications essential for the ruler” says Khomeini, “derive directly from the nature and form of Islamic government. In additional to general qualifications like intelligence and administrative ability, there are two other essential qualifications: knowledge of the law and justice”. Khomeini quotes a Hadith of the Prophet narrated by Abu Abdullah: “The fuqaha are the trustees of the prophet, as long as they do not concern themselves with the illicit desires, pleasures, and wealth of this world”. He affirms the continuity of this position through Imam Musa (one of the twelve Imams): “Believers who are fuqaha are the fortresses of Islam”, asserting that the fuqaha have the duty of being guardians of the beliefs, ordinances, and institutions of Islam. And finally, “There cannot be the least doubt that the tradition we have been discussing refers to the governance of the faqih, for to be a successor means to succeed to all the functions of prophethood.” Thus Khomeini asserts the authority of a faqih from the Qur’an, through the Sunnah of the Prophet and the sayings of the Twelve Imams. “Since Islamic government is a government of law”, said Khomeini, “those acquainted with the law, or more precisely with religion, i.e., the fuqaha, must supervise its functioning. It is they who must supervise all executive and administrative affairs of the country, together with all planning.”

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