Wilayat al-Faqih

Wilayat al-Faqih is an Islamic political doctrine holding that governance belongs to qualified religious jurists in the absence of the divinely guided Imam.

The concept, central to Shia Islam, was developed into a system of government by Ayatollah Khomeini and forms the constitutional basis of the Islamic Republic of Iran, where the Supreme Leader exercises ultimate authority as the ruling jurist.

The Arabic phrase translates roughly as "guardianship of the jurist."