Abstract
This article focuses on current processes of negotiating the relationships between religion, state, and politics through the lens of velāyat-e faqīh and the opinions of its leading supporters and critics in both Iran and Irak, and offers a tentative classification of these positions. The entire history of Shi‛a can be written by studying which of the different positions on this subject were held by which groups at any specific point in time. Even today, the question of who should rule, what source of legitimacy the ruler ought to have, and how extensive the powers accorded to the so-called Supreme Jurisprudent should be, is one of the most pressing and most hotly debated.
Amirpur, Katajun