Foundations of Religious Governance: Islam and the Individual–Society Relationship in the Political Thought of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli

Ayatollah Abdullah Javadi Amoli has authored numerous works across various fields of Islamic sciences, including political theology, which has established him as a prominent figure in this domain. The present study, utilizing Skinner’s intentionalist hermeneutic method, examines the relationship between the individual and society in Islam. Accordingly, the main research question is: How is the nature of the relationship between the individual and society defined in the perspective of Ayatollah Javadi Amoli. The hypothesis of this study is based on the assumption that, given the conceptual and empirical contexts as well as the prevailing norms in this field, Ayatollah Javadi Amoli may be regarded as affirming the dual primacy of both the individual and society—a primacy ultimately expressed through a form of cultural foundationalism. His arguments are sometimes presented in rejection of the primacy of society, and at other times in a conditional and attenuated affirmation of it. Some of the findings of the research are as follows: the reciprocal influence of the individual and society on one another; the objective existence of society based on the negation of Aristotelian matter and form; the difficulty of proving the existence of society on the basis of the necessity of typal unity; the question of whether society is real (haqiqi) or conventional (i‘tibari) is not a devotional matter (ta‘abbudi) for which the apparent meaning of words can serve as proof; the interconnection of the souls of society within intellectual existence; the delineation of society’s existence on the basis of the all-encompassing effusion (fayd itlaqi); the distinction between the existence of society from ontological and sociological perspectives; the differentiation of the domains of philosophy and sociology and the role of Imamate and Wilayah as the factors that bring about the concrete realization of society. Of course, in some of his works he also speaks of the primacy of the individual, but not from the perspective of human nature; rather, from the standpoint of the human being’s true reality—namely, the spiritual and heavenly dimension of the human soul. In his view, the consequence of individual primacy in materialist schools is self-interest, despotism, exclusivism, and domination, whereas in the school of revelation, the primacy of the individual leads to altruism, justice, benevolence, and the removal of oppression.