گفتمان اجتهاد و روابط قدرت

The Discourse of Ijtihad and power Relations

Ijtihad as a discourse, i.e. a regulated framework within which the practical precepts of shiʹi political life are produced and unified --- is the subject of this paper . This historical apparatus is born in the rationalistic environment of the fourth and fifth hijrat centuries and gradually gained a focal point through an evolutional process. Analysing overt and hidden rules governing this discourse has been subject to archeological analysis to which a section of this article is dedicated. In another section, the relation of Ijtihad to the social context surrounding it is studied and the impossibility of its abstraction from the structure and power relations is argued. In the final section, its formal development in contemporary era and the emergence of rival and parallel sub-discourses from within and also the critical attitudes toward it are discussed.