Note: Fiqh of international relations is at the beginning of becoming, and its various dimensions and aspects have not yet been clarified. One of these dimensions is the foundations and presuppositions of this jurisprudential chapter. Some of these foundations and presuppositions are shared among all chapters of fiqh or contemporary fiqh, but some are specific to fiqh of international relations. Hujjat al-Islam Dr. Mojtaba Abdkhodaee divides these foundations and presuppositions into epistemological and social. He, who in addition to studying in the seminary, has obtained a PhD in international relations from Allameh Tabataba’i University, considers the most important problem in research on fiqh of international relations to be the lack of familiarity of researchers in this field with the knowledge of international relations and international politics. The full text of the exclusive interview of Contemporary Jurisprudence with the associate professor of the international relations department at Allameh Tabataba’i University follows:

Contemporary Jurisprudence: Considering the jurisprudential rulings regarding the infidel, such as impurity, difference in blood money, testimony, permissibility of backbiting, accusation, and harming him, can an efficient fiqh of international relations be organized?

Abdkhodaee: Definitely yes. These issues can be viewed from two perspectives; one perspective is the philosophical jurisprudential perspective, meaning we look from a higher perspective at why fiqh has issued such instructions? It seems that one of the most important reasons for issuing such rulings is to distinguish the Muslim society from other societies. From this perspective, rulings such as the impurity of infidels seek to reduce interaction between Muslims and infidels and, as a result, distinguish the Muslim society from the infidel society.

The second perspective is the intellectual perspective. To enter this perspective, it is necessary to use traditions with explicit reasons so that we can discover the logic of the rulings and the logic of their establishment. In fiqh of international relations, the logic of international politics must also be understood so that based on it, we can discover jurisprudential rulings appropriate to it. The fact that we are sometimes not successful in the diplomatic arena is due to this reason that we have not understood the logic of international politics.

In the logic of international politics, it is important who has power? Do only we have power or do others also have power? In a place where it is not only you who has power but others also have power and there is a power struggle, how should one behave? For example, in war, it has been said to observe piety and even improper treatment should not occur with the dead of the opposing side; you can kill him but you cannot mutilate his corpse; so fiqh is regulating our behavior and determining limits for it.

On the other hand, the meaning of understanding the reason for rulings and understanding the logic of international politics is not to impose our incomplete thoughts and intellect on fiqh. If we do so and make our mentalities dominant over the method of inference, such a method is not called jurisprudential at all.

Contemporary Jurisprudence: Is the jurisprudential ruling of the obligation of enjoining good and forbidding evil compatible with the principle of non-permissibility of interference in the affairs of other countries?

Abdkhodaee: Such questions cannot be answered in this way. You enter the issue precisely; whereas first the subject must be identified and then the jurisprudential evidences must be stated. Without precise subject identification, this question and the like cannot be answered.

Contemporary Jurisprudence: To achieve an efficient fiqh of international relations, is there a need for change in the jurisprudential foundations and presuppositions?

Abdkhodaee: Change in foundations and presuppositions or, in other words, completion of foundations and presuppositions, is definitely necessary. The jurisprudential method, in my opinion, is the same jurisprudential method of Jawahiri fiqh; because we do not have another method for inference at all. But foundations and presuppositions in the sense that they are influential in inference have naturally become much more complete; because both issues and subjects have become complex and the recognition of the relations of issues has become complex, and these require looking at subjects and issues and their connections with the jurisprudential discussion, which is of the category of the obligation of the obligated and execution and action, with a new view.

Contemporary Jurisprudence: For the development, deepening, and elevation of the position of fiqh of international relations, what suggestions do you have?

Abdkhodaee: International relations in our country is generally a weak discipline; meaning the production of knowledge in it has not taken place at a high level, and those who have written in this regard have mostly not had a correct understanding of international relations and the logic of international politics.

In the seminary, this matter has not been seriously entered into. What has been more attended to in the seminary is political philosophy and political thought; whereas what is more related to the field and practice arena are issues such as international relations and foreign policy, and it is these kinds of matters that engage with the knowledge of fiqh; because the knowledge of fiqh is also related to the action of the obligated.

For elevating the position of fiqh of international relations, the first suggestion is that those who enter this field should first study in the field of political thought and have a deep view of the political matter.

Unfortunately, some have reduced political fiqh issues to issues of wilayat al-faqih that are discussed in the chapters of makasib and ijtihad and taqlid; whereas both political fiqh and fiqh of international relations are much broader than the issue of wilayat al-faqih and have many untold dimensions and aspects.

Therefore, it seems that the most important suggestion is the existence of a deep and serious view of the matter of fiqh of international relations as one of the most important branches of political fiqh.

Contemporary Jurisprudence: What do you consider the presuppositions of fiqh of international relations to be?

Abdkhodaee: We have epistemological presuppositions and social presuppositions. Epistemological presuppositions, such as our view of power, sovereignty, the status of governmental religion, the view of macro structures and trends, the view of the presence of fiqh in these arenas, our view of how rich we see Islam so that it wants to engage in system-building in all arenas, and…
Social presuppositions are also social factors that are influential in the implementation of these rulings.