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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A Cursory Glance at the Theory of Wilayat al-Faqih Chapter 6: The Assembly of Experts and Wilayat al-Faqih After introducing strong arguments for wilayat al-faqih and stating that the wali al-faqih is the best mujtahid who, in terms of the qualities required to assume the leadership and hold the reign of government, is the closest one to the infallible Imam ( ‘a ), it is important to elucidate the theory of wilayat al-faqih to see how such a person is to be recognized and what approach is used for identifying such a mujtahid from among the other fuqaha and mujtahidin .

In reality, discussing this issue entails reviewing some secondary subjects, which constitute the main topics of the last chapter of this book, and clarify the relationship between wilayat al-faqih and the Assembly of Experts. Why the Assembly of Experts? Nowadays, what is practically observed in the political structure of the Islamic Republic system which is based on wilayat al-faqih , is that the wali al-faqih is identified on the basis of the opinion and decision of the Assembly of Experts.

At this point, we would like to examine this issue academically and theoretically to see whether or not this method has a sound scientific and theoretical basis. For identifying the wali al-faqih , hypothetically different assumptions can be taken into account such as people’s direct vote, nomination by the previous wali al-faqih and Supreme Leader, selection by the Assembly of Experts, and selection by the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Majlis). Of course, there are other assumptions as well.

Perhaps the most important of them, the acceptance of which is possibly easier and has a relatively logical basis are the following assumptions: (1) selection by people’s direct vote and general elections; (2) selection by the Assembly of Experts; and (3) nomination by the preceding wali al-faqih and Supreme Leader. Among the three options, the first two are given special attention in the discussions and discourses.

At any rate, in our opinion, clarifying the degree of credibility and value of each of these three views and the topics pertinent to them helps to examine and comment on the other views and there will be no need for us to criticize and analyze the other views.