Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti, was an Iranian scholar, writer, jurist and one of the main architects of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic in Iran. He was also the secretary-general of the Islamic Republic Party, and the head of Iran's judicial system. He was assassinated together with more than seventy members of the Islamic Republic party. Following is his explanation of the concept of Jurist Guardianship in the assembly of expert:
“This is what we have suggested during the era of the occultation of the Imam of the Epoch (May Allah Hasten His Reappearance) in the Islamic republic of Iran, the authority over affairs, and the leadership over the Islamic nation, meaning the gravitational center of state and leadership is entrusted to the jurist, but what is a jurist? He is learned in Isla, he is aware, he is well trained and an expert. He is pious, God-fearing, someone in whose heart the remembrance of God is always alive and makes him worried about even the smallest divergence from God’s path. He is always awake, aware of the times, he must understand the epoch in which he lives and recognize the needs of himself, his society, his Islam, and his Islamic community in this epoch. He must be brave. Brave is implied when one says pious and faithful. But I mention it separately, to further emphasize it. So that it is expressed more clearly. He must be brave and fearless. He must be an administrator he must be a competent manager. An individual needs this skill in order to be the leader. He must be prudent, meaning h, he must be far-sighted. He must have a plan. He must have foresight. We have said that the gravitational center of the state, and the leadership of society, must be such an individual. Moreover, we have said how this individual acquires this position of centrality. The majority of people recognizes and accepts him as the leader.”
The leader said Members of the Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) committed a great crime against the Iranian nation by assassinating “this prominent figure” along with 70 other Iranian figures on this day forty years ago.
The casualties were caused after a bomb exploded at the headquarters of the Iran Islamic Republic Party (IRP) in Tehran, while a meeting of party leaders was in progress.
He must understand the epoch in which he lives and recognize the needs of his community in this epoch, Ayatollah Dr. Mohammad Beheshti says in developing the concept of Jurist Guardianship.
Imam Khomeini also said in a historic message that Martyr Ayatollah Dr. Sayyid Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti had been himself a nation.
Imam had assigned Beheshti with drafting the constitution of the Islamic Republic even months before the emergence of the Revolution in 1979.
Moreover, Dr. Beheshti was the founder of student activism in several European and Western countries. Several of his comrades played a key role in managing and handling affairs following the revolution victory at the sensitive juncture of history.