Religious State and Political Participation; a Qur'anic Approach to the Theory of Conditional Maximal Political Participation (Delegative-Agential)

The main question of the article is what approach to political participation is the existing or desired approach in Qur'anic thought. The research hypothesis, using the Jane Hampton model in theories of the state as a theoretical framework, is that in religious state, political participation and competition within the political regime are not against or solely for it, and among the delegative and agential approaches; the desired approach of the Qur’an is closer to what can be called "conditional maximum" or de-agential approach, which is conditional in the emergence and survival of religious state; a participation that is original as a causal element but is conditional and bound to some prior conditions and circumstances. The research approach in the two categories of verses of Shūrā and Bayʿah clearly has some differences with some other interpretative perspectives, and in the stage of choosing a leader, despite accepting the divine text and appointment, it also considers the political participation of the people to be relevant. In the research, in addition to the verses of Shūrā  and Bayʿah, other verses such as the verses of keeping the contract, enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong, public speeches of the Qur’an, caliphate and trust, etc. have been compared with political and agency participation. Accordingly, the validity of the political contract between the ruler and the people, the requirement of the Shūrā  institution in the public arena, active political participation as enjoining what is right and forbidding what is wrong and interfering in determining destiny, the right to choose and general selection of the people, the caliphate as a kind of doubt from God in line with the right to participate, and also the right to leave the government to the worthy as a trust are among the findings of the research as components and pillars of the "Conditional Maximum" (delegative- Agential) political participation approach.

کلیدواژه ها:

Political Participation in the Qur’an ، Political-Thematic Exegesis of the Qur’an ، Conditional Maximal Political Participation (Delegative-Agential) ، Religious Democracy ، Political Theology