The basis of leadership : Khumaynī's claims and the classical tradition

The central and pivotal doctrine of the Imamate in the Twelver Shii creed maintains that the Imams are endowed with the exclusive prerogative to assume the authority and functions of the Prophet in both the temporal and religious domains. This is so by virtue of explicit designation (nass) received by each Imam from his predecessor to act as custodian, protector and expositor of divine teachings. Unfavourable political circumstances during the 'Umayyad and 'Abbasid dynasties forced the Imams to adopt a quietist attitude and to opt for accommodation with the illegitimate authorites. The inaccessibility of the Imams and their inability to guide their followers in distant places resulted in delegation of certain functions of the the Imams to the 'ulama' to guide the community. The prolonged occultation of the twelfth Shii Imam led the jurists to arrogate to themselves the right to act as his indirect deputies (na'ib al-Imam). Establishment of Imami Shiism as the state religion by the Safavids in the early sixteenth century, the victory of the Usuli school over the Akhbaris and the formulation of the institutions of marja'iya and a'lamiya paved the way for Ayatullah Khumayni to lay the grounds for the jurist's assumption of all-comprehensive authority (al-wilaya al-mutlaqa) by extrapolating arguments from tradition reports. The combination of the marja'iya and leadership (rahbar) of the Islamic State in the person of Ayatullah Khumayni had the potential of marshalling the Shii 'ulama' and masses to support for a political cause. However, bifurcation of these two roles in the 1989 revised Constitution of Iran forebodes the separation of the secular and the religious spheres