This is specific to the prophets ( ‘a ).

This is specific to the prophets ( ‘a ).”[481] With this perspective, all the decrees and laws of Islam have a political facet and “The religion of Islam is a political religion; it is a religion in which everything is politics, including its acts of devotion and worship.”[482] In this view too, “The moral precepts of Islam are political as well.”[483] Oneness of ethics and politics in Islam The Imām believes that if man is left to himself he will fall under the sway of his carnal desires and material needs and any type of educational and political system, even the correct one, will be incapable of nourishing his spiritual dimensions, whereas the foundation of everything is spiritual and by reforming and nourishing this dimension in man, all other problems will be solved.

In his opinion, the enigma of today’s world is a moral one and if it is not solved, the world will head downhill toward destruction.

“The things that are threatening the world are not arms, bayonets, missiles, and the like… What is leading these people and these countries to perdition and decadence is the degenerations among the heads of countries and in the actions of the governments, which is emerging from the moral decadence.”[484] According to the Imām, “The school of thought of Islam is not a materialist school; it is a material-spiritual school… Islam has come for the edification of man.

The mission of Islam and the goal of all the prophets ( ‘a ) is this—to nurture man.”[485] Therefore, the source of every political approach should be ethics.

Attention to spirituality is inevitable because “the foundation is spiritualities.”[486] Basically, without ethics, politics is incapable of guiding the people and securing their true interests and if we assume that there is a person who implements a correct policy… this policy is just one dimension of the politics which had been for the prophets ( ‘a ), the saints [ awliyā’ ], and now for the scholars [ ‘ulamā’ ] of Islam. Man is not one-dimensional. The society too is not one-dimensional.

Man is not a mere animal whose affairs only concern food and eating. If there were both satanic policies and correct policies, they would guide and lead the community in one dimension and that is the animal dimension and material-social dimension. Such is of politics which in Islam is fixed for the prophets ( ‘a ) and for the saints.