Abstract: This article sheds light on the theological-jurisprudential concept of the Rule of saving the system (hifdh al-nidhām) and its origins in both theology and jurisprudence. The article insists the broader sense of the Rule and its close relationship with social order. While mentioning some examples of the Rule in different juristic issues, the article explains the importance of a transcendental and virtu-based discipline as it is conceived in the Rule. Also the article clarifies the connection of the Rule with saving the government. The main idea of the article, however, is that the implication of the Rule in Islamic jurisprudence is more connected with protection of social order in its broad sense. Although the Rule in this sense relates to saving and protecting a good government as a necessary element of the society, it is more protecting the disciplines and systems made by human being. The insistence of the rule on social order is not limited to Islamic society and/or saving an Islamic government, if any. Therefore, according to the Rule, every human discipline as far as it helps the survival of human being and the quality of its life should be respected. The article also mentions the ideal concept of the discipline and the potentials of the Rule for making a better social order.

Keywords: discipline, social system, Islam, theory of state in Islam, public order. A full Persian version of this article is published in the Quarterly Journal of Public Law, Vol. 21, Issue 63, Autumn 2019, pp.43-64.