Ma`rifat Farhangi Ejtemaei

This article employs an analytical method to trace the evolution of "social jurisprudence" in the contemporary era, from its conceptual formation to its distinct methodological approaches. As a nascent paradigm in Islamic thought, social jurisprudence has shifted away from the historically isolated "individual-centric jurisprudence" toward a systematic and structural perspective in response to political and social challenges. The research identifies several key historical phases in this evolution: the foundational period during the Safavid era, which theorized the role of jurisprudence in governance; the transformative period of the Constitutional Revolution and its encounter with modernity; and the period of consolidation and maturation following the Islamic Revolution, marked by Imam Khomeini's theory of "governmental jurisprudence," which redefined jurisprudence as a "theory of social administration." This transformation has yielded several distinct macro-approaches in the contemporary period, encompassing the "jurisprudence of social issues," the "jurisprudence of systems" (centered on the thought of Martyr Sadr), "governmental jurisprudence," and "civilizational jurisprudence." As its innovative contribution, this article provides an analytical comparison of these approaches, demonstrating that they constitute not parallel viewpoints but rather complementary and cumulative analytical layers. The article concludes that the transition to social jurisprudence represents a strategic evolution for demonstrating the efficacy of religion in system-building, the full realization of which depends on a synthesized application of these multi-layered approaches and a deepened interdisciplinary perspective.