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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Imam Khomeini, Ethics and Politics Three Ethical Pillars of Politics By giving nobility and validity to ethics and with the belief in the oneness of ethics and politics, Imām Khomeinī ( r ) endeavored in the course of various admonitions to the employees and officials of the [Islamic] system, to present a portrayal of his ideal ethical politics, or in other words, the Islamic politics.
During the first decade of the Islamic Revolution in Iran it rarely happened that he did not emphasize, in his speeches and messages, the centrality of ethics in politics.
In fact, this ethical view on politics is the continuation of the same tradition he had in his Sharh-e Chehel Hadīth —that is, reformation of the society is only possible through inner reformation and it is only through self-purification and constant supervision of the self that a righteous society can emerge and the foundation of authentic politics be laid down.
He used to point out to the statesmen on various occasions that every one has a ‘Pharaoh’ within him and there is a kind of dictatorship in one’s inner self. But one should always be vigilant not to let this ‘Pharaoh’ acquire power and this dictator to gain in strength. All these emphases that man is always in the presence of God stem from his view on the place of ethics.
He used to enumerate innumerable moral attributes and qualities for the statesmen, and reckon them as requisites for ethical politics. Among them, we will selectively identify three features here and discuss them so as to find out the Imām’s outlook on them. Of course, this choice does not imply inattention to the importance of other moral features of ethical politics; it is, rather, merely a selection among many other choices.
These three features are as follows: * * • Sincerity; • Openness to criticism; and • Simple living. Sincerity As a moral virtue, truthfulness [ sidāqah ] has been always cherished and lauded among all the peoples throughout history. There is hardly a place where this virtue has been spoken of unfavourably. When mentioning one of the prophets ( ‘a ), the Glorious Qur’an points to this same truthfulness as one of his characteristics, stating: “And make mention in the Scripture of Ishmael. Lo!
He was a keeper of his promise [as-sādiq al-wa‘d].” [494] Similarly, the Glorious Qur’an identifies the truthful ones along with the prophets ( ‘a ).[495] But, what is truthfulness?