Abu Musa Mohammad Arif Billah - Associate Professor, Department of Persian Language and Literature, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

It is obvious that the existing political thoughts need to be readdressed following recent developments in the socio-cultural and political arena of the contemporary world. The foundation ofthe contemporary political thoughts was laid upon the understanding of the secularist concept, whichwas based on the materialistic view of Western philosophy. The idea of individualism and Westernliberalism was derived from the same fragment of modernism. The dilemma of Communism over theexperience of the last century reached a frustrating outcome – political oppression and injustice, whichplayed a significant role in the fall of Soviet Russia. The Capitalism based western democracy, nowadays, appeared to be a tool of changing or sharing power. These post-renaissance developmentstook place on the basis of the concept of secularism, ignoring completely the virtue of religiousthoughts. Poverty, social injustice, inequality are a common phenomena of the contemporary world. At the outset of twenty first century, it is time for the researchers, politicians as well as philosophers to tryto find a way forward for the cause of a real development of mankind. Hence, it would be convenienthere to recall the thoughts of Ibn Rushd: ‘there is no incompatibility between religion and philosophywhen both are properly understood. Regarding political philosophy, unlike Plato, he advocates aleading role in a state for philosophers. Imam Khomeini in his political thoughts has given utmostimportance to the concept of Vilayāt-i faqīh, i.e. the Governance of Islamic Jurists, which is, to someextent, very close to Plato’s idea of philosopher king. Hence, I, with the confluence of the sayings by Ibn Rushd, would like to mention that, there is no incompatibility between religion and philosophy aswell as politics when they are properly understood. This paper attempts to address the relevant issues incorporating works on Muslim politicaltheory, the movements of modernism in contemporary Muslim world and considering the Qur’anicprinciples as well as the governance of the Islamic republic of Iran. The outcome of this paper will helpus to make a bridge between the understanding of Islamic political thinkers and western or modern political thinkers.

Thoughts, Reconstruction, Communism, Vinlayāt-i faqīh, Liberalism