justice

This paper is an attempt to reconsider the legacy of universalism of traditional empires from the perspective of systems theory. In the West, the system ideas were already present in ancient Greek/Roman philosophy and developed further since the Renaissance within the domain of natural sciences (anatomy, mechanics or astronomy), whereas they did not develop as much in social sciences and particularly in politics, which lacks a holistic understanding. In the universal empires of the East (such as Iran, China and Russia) the system paradigm developed from the political life of centralized statehood. The core concept of the traditional imperial universalism was a particular understanding of “justice”, not as equality or absence of coercion, but as a certain form of social order. As the Chinese philosopher Xunzi and the Persian philosopher Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, noted, “justice” is primarily an “equilibrium”, that is a way of maintaining optimal interrelationships between different aspects of society within a single political whole. Traditional imperial universalism understood “just order” as a centralized hierarchical order. However, the current state of the systems approach and the complexity theory allows the reconsideration of the legacy of traditional universalism as the principle of totality of organizational connections and hierarchies of “systemic elements”, in the terminology of Russian philosopher, Alexander Bogdanov. It is concluded that the three Eastern thinkers share similar systematic understanding of “justice” as a hierarchically-arranged political order, coordinated on the basis of a single plan, which permits to maintain a dynamic balance.

One of the most fundamental subjects relating to humankind’s social life is justice. From the early days of human civilization, this topic has been intertwined with the most basic philosophical and sociological thoughts developed by the human mind. The great intellectuals of human history-whose contributions in the field of knowledge should truly be viewed as humankind’s collective heritage, not merely tied to the pride of a particular region or nationality-have all sought to address this topic in some way-in view, of course, of their peculiar social, ethical, philosophical, and political considerations-in an attempt to offer a precise definition of it and an accurate description of its role in the general arena of the human being’s social life. Divine and monotheistic religions have also been champions of justice in human societies. The Qur’an-as the final heavenly book revealed to God’s final prophet-enumerates three objectives in Surah Jum‘ah for which God appointed His prophets: to purify the human being’s soul from vice, to teach him God’s decrees and signs, and to edify him with knowledge and wisdom so as to enable him to uphold social justice. This demonstrates clearly that, in their religious endeavors, all the prophets pursued the same end, for the above-cited Surah does not restrict these objectives to Prophet Muhammad’s ministry; they are put forth as the objectives of all previous prophets as well.In this light, the comparative study of the principles that the monotheistic and Abrahamic faiths-particularly the two great faiths of Islam and Christianity-share in common or at least come very close to sharing is an especially important interdisciplinary field of study. In this article, I attempt to examine, in summary fashion of course, the tenets Islam and Christianity posit with regard to the concept of justice. (I should note in advance that my study of the Christian doctrine rests mainly on the thought and works of Saint Augustine.) This article should be viewed as a preliminary work, an introduction to a more extensive study on the principles these two faiths define regarding justice and, more particularly, social justice.

A constant yet complex question in the history of political thought is that of justice, which has been discussed by all political thinkers. Yet, different answers have always been provided to the question what justice or a just act is or what decision can be considered to be a just one. Nevertheless, as a concept throughout history, justice is also a topic constantly dealt with in divine religions, especially in Islamic thought. In Islamic thought, justice is by itself of such significance that it has been frequently discussed in the Holy Quran as well as in the tradition and, subsequently, has been one of the most controversial religious concepts analyzed by Islamic thinkers including philosophers, theologians and Islamic jurisprudents. The present article studies the concept of justice according to Imam Ali, especially because he is the only Infallible Imam throughout the history of Islam who functioned as the head of the political power and led the Islamic society through complex political events and with wide gaps.

Justice is the main Principle for macking a safe National/ International order. Because of it, author in this article identify and analyze different dimensions of Justice order. For this, author analyzed Two approaches – according Imam Khomeini's point of wieve: National order & Justice; and International order & Justice.At the first stage, this theory is baised on Adjustment of relation between Government & Citizens. In the Second Stage, is baised on Adjustment between States according Law and Power. Therefore, author shows us a new theory of International/ National Order which is baised on Adjustment – not power.

This article attempts to study the interactions between the two religious and secular domains in three intellectual periods in the history of Western political philosophy before Christ, in the ecclesiastical period and in the modern era, in which the separation of religion and state in Western political thought is a two-tier phenomenon in theory and practice. In other words, the internal layer of the philosophy seeks to reread and mentally separate political from nonpolitical matters so as to prescribe a just or a relatively not unjust criterion for political actors although, in practice, political actors and the others cannot avoid interacting. Again in other words, this article, while researching the just rights of citizens and the need for interaction and a link between political and nonpolitical actors, shows why and how in order for politics and the like to outline a moral theory that would fit a political theory in practice, cannot avoid separating and distinguishing the two in theory.

Ethnic diversity in each country requires policy-making harmonized with the principles of the political system and the diversity state in that nation. Iran is one of the countries that has ethnic diversity. Justice in the Islamic Republic of Iran is a fundamental discourse and a legitimating factor that policy-making must be based on it. Therefore, justice in ethnic diversity policy-making has importance; it has also some implications. In this paper, by scholarly method and using existing resources and documents, besides choosing the approach and defining justice to put everything it its place as a theoretical framework, the status and importance of justice in policy-making of ethnic diversity will be explored from three perspectives:Firstly, the theoretical aspect by which presenting theories aims at explaining the relationship between justice and the emergence of ethnic crises. Secondly, the objective and field aspect, which signals the results of surveys, indicates the place of justice in policy-making of ethnic diversity. Finally, there is the importance of justice in the high-level documents related to the ethnic domain, which the volume of this issue indicates the significance of discussing justice in policy-making. In the next step, the implications of choosing a fair approach toward ethnic diversity policy-making in the Islamic Republic of Iran have been extracted. Reviews and studies have shown that the principal, objective, process, political and structural implications are taken from the adoption of a fair approach toward the policy-making of ethnic diversity.

Ali Shariati (Ph.D.) is a thinker who has tried to describe and introduce Islam in the context of socialism with sociological approaches and utilizing historical data and minimal philosophical views. In this endeavor, justice was a central concept shaping the ideal society of Shariati, called the Middle Ummah (Middle Community). By manipulating conventional socialism, using its various modes, and also incorporating Islamic beliefs into its structure, he tried to use socialism as a context for introducing Islamic vision to build an ideal religious society. In this religious ideal society characterized to be a dual-rooted one named “Classless Monotheistic Society”, justice was the spirit governing it, which tuned it with the system of creation. On the path to build a theory of justice shaping a classless monotheistic society, Shariati passes through the four stages of theorizing; however, contradictions appear in the stages more elaborated by him and a great deal of ambiguity is also seen where he has chosen to give brief explanations. Thus, Shariati’s theory of justice is an incomplete theory containing many innate contradictions and ambiguities. The flaw in Shariati’s justice theory is so serious that the authors claim that what is inherited from Shariati is not a coherent theory of justice; rather, it is an initial design of a theory of justice in the context of Islamic socialism.

Justice has invariably been one of the most contentious concepts of religious and political literature among the various schools of thought and philosophy throughout the entire history of humankind. The different definitions, interpretations, and applications philosophers and intellectuals have postulated in relation to the topic of justice have constituted the focus of profound and contentious debates, the result of which has been the formation of numerous intellectual trends and schools. One of the more specific topics of discussion among these different schools of thought has been the scope of implementation of justice and the boundaries in which it ought to be enforced. It has been the conviction of many scholars and intellectuals that the enforcement of justice is necessarily confined within the boundaries of the state and as such to seek the rule of justice on a border scale in the international arena would be impracticable and unrealistic. In the course of the present article this author intends to examine Islam’s perspective and approach on the topic of justice in international relations, thereby underscoring Islam’s distinctive theoretical principles and approach, which differentiate it from other schools of thought concerning this topic.