ABSTRACT
Chapter five discusses two significant aspects of the first variable of the triadic relation of freedom: the eligibility of the agent of freedom, and the equality of agents in having freedom. There were two main trends in answering the question of eligibility. Most constitutionalists believed that freedom was an unconditional divine gift that could be achieved despite the fact that most Iranians were still ignorant. They argued that such a weakness could not justify withholding freedom; rather, liberty would be an essential requisite on the path to civilization. The other trend supported a different strategy: ‘first public awareness, then freedom’. Addressing the question of equal rights of freedom, overall, two positions were held by constitutionalists. A group of them demanded the enactment of laws granting all members of society, whether woman or man, whether Muslim or non-Muslim, equal rights; while the other group interpreted equality as equality in the implementation, rather than the enactment, of laws. The second group emphasized that they did not mean that all people are equal in religious duties; rather, they believed that each religious commandment which has been enacted as a law should be enforced equally for all cases. Among this group, some thinkers remained within the traditional framework of Shia fiqh, while some others attempted innovatively to set the meta-religious values in the Islamic legal system.
