When people try to make sense of Iran, they tend to reach for the usual explanations. They talk about nationalism, long-standing grievances, or the basic logic of how states survive. Those things matter, but they don’t really get to the heart of it. The Islamic Republic isn’t just a political system that happens to lean on religion for support. It’s built out of a theological problem, one that shapes how it understands authority, law, and even history itself. If you miss that, a lot of what Iran does ends up looking confusing—like it’s picking confrontation when it ought to be backing down.

That problem starts with an absence. In Twelver Shiʿism, the one person who is supposed to rule—the Twelfth Imam—isn’t gone, but he’s not accessible either. He’s believed to be alive, just hidden. His authority hasn’t been passed on or dissolved; it’s still there, but no one can fully exercise it. That creates a strange situation. Authority is real, but it can’t quite be carried out. Legitimacy is affirmed in theory, but it never fully shows up in practice. Governments exist, but none of them can claim to be what they’re meant to be.

For centuries, Shiʿi thought didn’t try to solve that tension so much as live with it. Scholars and jurists played a central role—interpreting the law, resolving disputes, guiding everyday life. But they didn’t pretend to stand in for the Imam or erase the gap his absence created. Their authority had clear limits. It was necessary, but it was also understood to be incomplete. Political order held things together, but it didn’t answer the deeper question of who truly had the right to rule.

Khomeini changes that in a significant way. He starts with an argument that sounds straightforward: if divine law is still binding, then it has to be enforced. And if it has to be enforced, then you need real institutions—courts, administration, some way to make people comply. In other words, you need a state. Once you accept that, the next step follows quickly. If the Imam is absent but the law still applies, then someone has to take responsibility for putting it into practice.........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)