THE CORRELATION BETWEEN SHI’A DOCTRINE AND THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION

ABSTRACT:The Iranian revolution of 1979 was a major revolution of the 20th century. It was on par with the Russian revolution of 1917 and Mao Ze Dong’s revolution in China in 1949. This revolution was driven by religious figures led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini against the ruling regime, Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, a regime that had the strongest military in the Middle East and was supported by the United States. Khomeini’s call for a revolution and the overthrow of the Shah of Iran’s rule was met with great enthusiasm throughout Iran. With enormous popular power the revolution succeeded and the Shah of Iran was forced to leave his royal throne. Iran’s form of government was changed from a monarchy to a republic under the name of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This study is intended to analyze whether there is a correlation between the Shia doctrine of the Imamate and the concept of wilayat al-faqih with the success of the great revolution. The results of the study show that the Shia doctrine of the Imamate and wilayat al-faqih contributed greatly to the success of the revolution.

KEYWORDS: doctrine, imamate, revolution, Shia, wilayat al-faqih