Moslem Taheri Kol Kashvandi - Department of Shi‘a Studies, Faculty of Theology, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

In this study, with a critical approach, the view of Ḥasan Ḥanafī as for the relations between religious law and government is investigated; meanwhile, first, his approach toward the dual quiddity of politics/ religious law is explored, and then, the relations between these two for organizing issues like government (which is the pivotal issue of politics in modern era) are explored. Formation of modernity in modern era based on the Western, political order – which is managed in the phenomenon of government – suggested Muslims that the way to abandon the extant backwardness in Islamic societies is the provision of conventional answers (regardless of religion) to challenges such as the issue of government, legitimacy, and how it should be organized. Therefore, the political, social contemporary Muslim thinkers tried to face such challenges. The data of the present study is gathered using the library method and is explored with a descriptive-analytic approach. The most important result of this study is the attention of Ḥasan Ḥanafī to the political, the formation of efficient government, and all the more the pillars of legitimacy and acceptance of such a government in Islamic societies; he has tried – in his own view – to provide an updated answer to them, an answer which is based on the requirements of the society.

Religious Law, politics, government, Islamic societies, Ḥasan Ḥanafī