ABSTRACT
The Iranian revolution of 1979 was propelled by a powerful JL egalitarian thrust or, at the very least, by a powerful commitment to social and economic justice. In the lead-up to the revolution, revolutionary pamphleteers and mosque preachers routinely denounced the real or perceived inequities of the old regime. The attempt to create a new and more just economic and social order however proved disruptive and divisive. The yoking of Islam and social justice to the same cart has to a large degree defined the terms of the debate. Islam has traditionally emphasized equity and social justice; and some writers sought to derive from these broad moral principles economic rules and lessons for the society of their own day. By the time the first flood of revolutionary legislation was over, the government was in control of all the major industry in the country, accounting for perhaps 70 per cent of private industrial capacity, and encompassing as many as 1,000 factories.
