Justice and Liberty

In The Name of the Most High

Liberty and justice have usually been of the human's crucial worries. There have been many rulers who, by pretending to do justice, have violated liberty another groups of rulers on the other side, removed justice by keeping liberty. It was the importance of justice and liberty concepts which made some people see all their wishes and problems in power distribution and some others see wealth distribution as the key solution but, in the Islamic political thoughts the goal is to see these two concepts beside each other as complementary of each other. Although in the literature of Islamic political thoughts the concept of justice and being fair have been more considerable, in fact the nature of this thought is that justice and liberty have been equally valued and considered as key concepts.

The man, a free creature

developing social justice without liberty is a vague concept because freedom of will (intention) shapes the man's character therefore, based on Islamic political thought liberty is a right which god have forgiven the man and depriving the men of this divine gift is not in the hands of the human beings.
Believing in determinism, putting out the seeking justice society moods and the person living in that community justifies the situation in which he lives and attributes these miseries to his fate in other words, all of the society oppressions and injustices are being fated and no one can not protest to change the situation but , believing in freedom and human's authority is crucial in building the foundations of social life and in fact, it is a revolution against injustice and hope for the best situations . Thinking and authority without each other is meaningless while man's wisdom and authority is understood altogether and wisdom helps him to make free and deliberate decision.
It is evident that the man is free in his deeds verses, any of the natural and preternatural factors have not been deprived him therefore, any one who consciously feels, neither based on the Ashae're who claimed that god deprived the man of authority nor oriented materials who claimed material condition of environment can involuntary him Such as leaves, straw on the raging flood. Based on this, trying to achieve justice and create an ideal society is necessary, on the contrary, cruelty is by nature considered unfavorable which must be challenged.
In human nature there is, liberalism, seeking justice, Idealization and feeling to seek a favorable community in fact, the expression of these concepts are in social nature of the man, a nature which gives man liberty and enable him to revolute against social impositions so that the person can change his community and go unlike the flow of community and even can change the course of his community history as well.

Man an intelligent being:

One of the Foundations of Islamic political systems about Anthropology is the man's analytical capability and his understanding of different issues. According to religious texts, god has two proofs which the first outward proof is prophets and the second internal one is his reason therefore, it means that we can benefit our reason in interpretations as well as investigations and understand phenomena of course, this kind of rationalism differs from those which is known in the west only as a tool in fact , in the west rationalism or reasoning is a tendency to gain benefit and shape material word while in religious thoughts ,rational ism is not independent of celestial power.
It is evident that development of rationality and thought in community become epidemic when thinking barriers corrected and this overall correction don’t occur unless by Inclusion of social justice. Wisdom is the application designer and planning needs a free intension therefore, the man by freedom and wisdom can move toward implementation of social justice.

Man, a creature in charge:

Having the above advantages over other creatures, the man is in charge in social life and surrounding environment therefore, based on political thoughts of Shia the man possesses a large loan which is reminiscent of freedom and choice, a right which brings responsibility for him. Ayatollah Shahid Mottahari in accordance with 72th verse of chapter (soura)Ahzab says : that kind of giant loan which all creatures rejected except the man ,is the same responsibility.
In reasons of a religious thought, men are free and this case is actively present in man's accountability and responding. Also in religious thoughts all people are responsible for community and this responsibility makes man treats fairly therefor, power is along with responsibility and force leaders to spread justice and freedom in community.
That kind of awareness which is due to man's authority is accompanied with responsibility, too. In holy Quran , the lake of the educated men's accountability for social affairs and the religious scholars' silence when facing wrongdoers corruption is mentioned as the reasons of last tribes' destructions and isolated scholars have been censured because they didn’t stop them and didn’t guide society toward justice and liberty.

Manifestations of justice and liberty association in Islamic political thought

1) God's law:
during the history up to know the man has been after gaining more benefit and it is likely that he violate the others' right therefore, to guarantee and keeping justice and liberty there must be rule in the community . The maximum of liberty is maintained by determining the amount of freedom and this amount should be determined lawfully and fairly. Law enforcement depends on power and power must guide law and to ensure that everyone respect for the law, liberty must accompanied with law so, this three pillars are put together.
Freedom, rule and power and rule without power is chaotic, however; power and rule without freedom is equal to autarchy and power without freedom and rule is brutality therefore, when these three factor come together we can expect presence and appearance of justice in community. The rule which is combined with whims and selfishness can not provide justice and freedom in society and the man is limited in terms of time and place so perceiving it, is not universal and may be forgotten or mistaken and even under the law considers his benefits on the other side of the coin , in respect to the men's equality and lack of one's superiority no one can create a law to limit human liberty unless the one who consider his real goodness and have had the best recognition of his needs as well as his feelings therefore, the determiner of liberty must be the one who is creator of all cosmic and forgiver of all rights. This part of law is called rule of religion which is specific to god and even the prophets and Imams are not allowed and if they command us to do something is god's message of course, the human can create some rules based on the divine principals and rules in other word, a rule which is in accordance with celestial teachings and is called interpretive rule.
Governing of divine rule limits the powerful and strong leaders and provides favorable conditions to achieve a fair community. Under the glasses of Islamic thoughts favorable rule and fair, display general benefit and organize social life which must be mixed with believing in order to move in the path of justice and freedom.

Criticism and accountability

In any community, lake of its accountability brings about injustice, cruelty of oppressors and autarchy in these communities. Dictatorship or a centered power without criticism and monitoring will be corrupted and asphyxia will overwhelmed community also, lack of liberty of criticism and policy provide the opportunity for some servile to gather around power seat therefore, rejection and lack of reality submission increases among some powerful leaders and they don’t accept the other's comments and think of their way as the best one. At this time, the opportunity for cruelty in community is provided and liberty is constrained but in Islamic political thoughts the governors are not infallible and their actions and behaviors are prone to criticize. One of the outcomes of criticism nonexistence in community is asphyxia, injustice and overall commenting. When old tradition of criticism in community is little therefore, the deviation from justice and liberty starts and the government becomes a playground for leaders ' selfish behavior that are not worry about liberty and justice . Questioning the power and criticism brings about justice and liberty in community and this happen when political atmosphere of community is vast and bare of any dogmatic ideas therefor, culture of criticism and leaders' critical flexibility develops along with liberty and becomes criteria therefore, people can freely criticize the situation they live in and ask for reform.

Political cooperation

Some people think that political liberty is collection of privileges that people living in that country need in order to cooperate with political parties or the person can express his attitudes, ideas freely by elections in community.
In Islamic political thoughts cooperation and co-helping is very important however, suitable means for liberty is provided by political challenges and cooperation. In this culture and fair community, political cooperation and citizens' help in community affairs is recognized legally while in autocratic ,there is no room for "right" and whatever is for people is" duty "
In fact, by political cooperation, citizens can write the fate of their own society by their hands and by resorting to all people's mind, follow the community flow toward justice.

Consultation an advice:

Consulting with citizens means the ruler is not an absolute one and this governor's comments must be monitored closely by the intelligent eyes.
According to holy Quran, the governors' duty is to consult with people and their representatives in political issues therefor; the addressee of this verse "consult them in affairs" is holy prophet as the representative of all people. According to this verse, the prophet was commanded to consult his people in political issues so, based on the above verse every one who is responsible for diplomacy have to obey this command and grammatically discussing, the reference of the above pronoun is all people who must be consulted with and the aim of "command" in the above verse is diplomatic issues concerning people life. Because when the addressee is holy prophet as a politician, we can interpret that the verse is talking about diplomacy besides grammatical analysis confirms that the verse is about policy and can not refer to prophesy.
In consultation the ground is provided for global commenting and social freedom especially when national interest and big decisions are going to be made. Leader in consulting with others accepts that his power in decision making is being monitored and investigated. In fact, consultation is sharing people in decision making and can brings about freely censuring of powers as well as blocking autarchy.
In Islamic political thoughts of the current time, we can see the inseparable association of justice and liberty, as well. The fact is that in the latest century, especially by solar forth decade in Iran, both of these are mentioned besides each other and embracing them provide the opportunity for a religious government establishment.
As a result the founder of Islamic republic of Iran, Imam khomeini, has been after forming of a government which can achieve liberty, justice and religion enforcement.
In Islamic political thought taken from holy Quran, justice and liberty have a high position and both help the man to achieve happiness therefore, based on this thought, in order to express his needs, optimal values and shout for right, man is free and opponent in Islamic community can comment freely and is emphasized that discussion goes on fairly. In a correct Islamic system, autarchy does not have any room and ruler must necessarily consult people. In this community, it has been emphasized on liberalism, avoidance of blind imitation, free behavior and reasoning and the appropriate field provided for comment interference