ABSTRACT
Ayatollah Khomeini (1902–1989) was a Shiite jurist and revolutionary leader who justified his claim to power on the grounds of being the deputy of the hidden Imam, who is believed by Shiite Muslims to be in occultation and is due to re-appear towards the End of Time to establish a just order in the world. While there was general agreement among Shiite jurists that the expert on divine law enjoyed a measure of authority in the age of the occultation, which ranged from guardianship over orphans and widows to distribution of the religious tax (Sachedina 1998). it was Khomeini alone who declared that this authority should extend to all affairs with which the hidden Imam himself was charged, including the setting up of a divine order on Earth. It was this outlook which informed his political worldview. It provided the background for his struggle against the Shah’s regime and was responsible for the formation of his most important political theory, Welayat al-Faqih (Guardianship of the Jurist), which later became the blueprint for the establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
