The late Iranian spirit leader Imam Khomeini looks for the essence of the man in the Islamic believes and the political system. In Khomeini’s eyes, the man is in the process of self-perfection, the greatest compass guiding a man is keeping the public and giving up the selfishness in the mind. The man is an institutional one, in other words, he is the producer of the certain social system. In Islamic world, it is under the guidance of the Islamic government that the man elevates and perfects himself. Although interpersonal intelligence has difference, every one can raise himself by his owe efforts. However, the characters of the whole persons are decided by the social political system. The better the system, the faster the character of the man is developing, the higher it reaches, the better the man is, vice versa. What kind of system is the best one? His answer is the Islamic republican system. He once said: “For we see that men are prey to defects; they are not perfect, and must need to strive for perfection.” All the problems besetting the world, including wars, arise from this egoism. All human sufferings are caused by egoism of these and other forms; people pull in different directions dictated by their own selfish desires. When there is no belief, but only attention to self, concern for the self and its desires, then trouble arises. The Qur'an was revealed to make men into men, and all matters of worldly and social concern are means to this end. Those who have eyes to see with know that justice is an attribute of God Almighty, and so they strive to establish a government of justice and to ensure social justice. But this is not their ultimate aim; it is merely a means for advancing man toward that goal for the sake of which all the prophets were sent. Divine governments, however, set themselves the task of making man into what he should be.” What is the divine government? In Khomeini’s mind, the divine government should have characteristics as followings: being able to ward off aggression and to defend the honor of the Muslims in case of attack, Leading people along the right way. Guaranteeing to implement the laws, Maintaining social order, preventing the anarchy appearing, assuring the unity of the Islamic umma, liberating the Islamic homeland from occupation and penetration by the imperialists and their puppet governments, protecting the Islamic territory safety and making the society development.
Imam Khomeini's view on the man is an inevitable result of the Islamic traditional philosophy in development. Unlike Christianity philosophers fix attention on that the man is born good or bad, the Islamic philosophers take more care for the perfection of the man. This phenomenon can be seen as a result guided by Quran. Quran says such as: I have made the man into the most beautiful one in appearance. (95,4) He makes you lead everything in the world for him. (35,39）According to this, the Islamic philosophers bend themselves to differentiating the man from the general animals and how to train man's excellence in order to be equal to the task given by God.
In a contrary direction of the western theologists who object the general persons to have knowledge, the Islamic scholars insist on that the men perfect themselves by knowledge at beginning. We can see it in the words of the prophet that they like to quote: knowledge even is in the far China, should be sought.
By a retrospection of the Islamic man’s view, we can see that Khomeini’s theory that the man decided by political system inherits, develops and surmounts the Islamic traditional theory on man. In Khomeini's view, as one kind of belief, one kind of culture, one kind of life style and one kind of thinking way, Islam is inseparable from the man and it is by Islam that can make the man be true man under the guidance of God. The essence of the man exists in the process of the man’s perfection, the good political system is the guarantee. Unlike the traditional view that only the elite can become a perfect man, Khomeini believed that every common person can be a perfect man in the good political system and get his own happiness. A good government must develop productivity, but it is not enough to enrich the national wealth, it must distribute the wealth among the whole people justly in order to let everyone share the developing fruit with others. It not only makes a progress in the productivity and the scientific technique, but also promotes a man in all aspects. Developing scientific technique is one important part of productivity, so a good government must do its best to make a progress in it. A good political system doesn’t lie in elaborating theory, but it does in the social practice, so the standard of a good political system is whether it adapts its society and make its people a biggest and whole progress or not. When it pursues for wealth only, a nation is not different from a zoo. Khomeini finds out a ruler to judge social political system. It is to develop its people into perfect man. Khomeini looks the United States and Soviet Union as the Biggest Satan and the Second Satan for they carry the hegemonic policy to push the world in danger and propagandize their value to beguile the people in the world into the wrong way. Based on the theory that a good political system trains the good man, Khomeini set up a systemic theory on Islamic government. Guided by the theory, the Iranian people ended the Pahlavi Dynasty, after a long struggling with the outer and inner counterrevolutionists, at last set up Islamic republic system, by which the Iranian nation gets on the way of political modernization. The Iranian political modernization way shows the persons in the world another way for social transformation. This is an important contribution to the world in political system building. We can see the world is a multipart world.
Source: Human Dignity Articles- Volume One- English Texts (Comparison of Man in the Eyes of Huntington, Khomeini and PENG Shuzhi by WU Cheng)