Abstract
Religious intellectualism is one of the important currents of thought that has played a great role in the fundamental changes of society. Religious intellectuals arise from the interaction of Iranian society with modernity and the role and approach of intellectuals towards it. Based on this, it is important to know and understand Ayatollah Khamenei, who has been in close contact with this intellectual current and some of its representatives for years, in knowing the points of damage and some shortcomings of this intellectual spectrum. The main research question is: What are the characteristics and functions of religious intellectuals in the Islamic system from the perspective of Ayatollah Khamenei? Based on the hypothesis of the research, the characteristics and functions of religious intellectuals in the Islamic system can be explained from the perspective of Ayatollah Khamenei in terms of having a critical view, reforming the lifestyle and bringing people to worldly and hereafter happiness. Therefore, the current research has analyzed the data with a practical purpose and using a qualitative method and with the help of library and field tools (especially interviews with a number of elites). According to the findings, in the thought of Ayatollah Khamenei, in Iran intellectualism was born in a pathological way, and had injuries in the functional, behavioral (including two dimensions of personality and behavior) and insight (including two dimensions in relation to the West and religion). According to him, a true intellectual is someone who does not accept progress and transformation in any way; Rather, it accepts that type of program for transformation and progress that is in accordance with national interests, the intellectual, cultural and value structure of the society.
Keywords: Ayatollah Khamenei, religious intellectual, modernization, political thought, function.
 
Introduction
Religious intellectualism emerged in response to the presence of modernity, and more precisely, its disharmonious entry into Iranian society, as well as the militant and exclusionary perception of traditionalists (compared to modernism). This approach has an opinion on religion and its position. However, modern thinkers are trying to revive religion in the new world and consider the problems of societies to be solved within the framework of new understandings of religion and traditions. While religious intellectuals are trying to adapt answers from religion to such issues with priority to new issues in Islamic societies.
Ayatollah Khamenei attaches great importance to intellectual status. From his point of view, according to the teachings of the Holy Quran, religious intellectualism is a forward-looking phenomenon that looks to the future and naturally cannot adapt to regression. But the intellectual movement that once claimed to be a leader, today in Islamic societies is in error, and instead of leadership, it needs guidance, and the masses of people play the role of guiding the intellectuals. In fact, from Ayatollah Khamenei's point of view, although the role of religious intellectuals in society is an important and fundamental role in the direction of progress and development, he has always guided religious intellectuals to confront threats.
 
Materials and methods
In terms of the nature of the research, it is exploratory research, in terms of the type of applied research, and in terms of the research strategy, it has an inductive strategy. In addition, according to the nature of the research data, it is a qualitative method and a semi-standard interview type with experts and experts. In order to carry out the article, first the records of previous researches were studied in order to get an understanding of the current situation. Then, through interviews with 15 experts in this field, they were selected based on theoretical sampling and through several stages, and their opinions on identifying the functions of religious intellectuals in the Islamic system from the perspective of Ayatollah Khamenei were received. In order to collect data, an interview protocol with an open-ended questionnaire was designed in which relevant questions were asked from the participants and the desired data was collected.
 
Discussion and results
Based on his religious and belief foundations, Ayatollah Khamenei emphasizes rationality as the most important foundation of intellectuals, and among the effective factors in the formation of intellectuals, he assigns a prominent and privileged role to rationality. Increasing insight in society is related to intellectualism; Because social awareness and insight among people can be mentioned as one of the functions of intellectuals, which causes people to harmonize in different political, social and economic fields. Ayatollah Khamenei emphasizes on strengthening the revolutionary identity and religious ideology and the role of religious intellectuals in this process. In other words, the work of intellectuals should reflect religious and revolutionary identity. In addition, an innovative approach to Islamic religious and intellectual issues is the intellectual approach and does not mean heresy. That is, understanding and expressing the same basics with new dimensions that man knows thanks to the passage of time, should not be neglected as an effective religious intellectual component. Finally, the issue of religious democracy should also be mentioned. The rule of religious democracy, like liberal democracy, follows the rule of law; with this fundamental difference that democracy in the West is cognate and associated with secularism, but in religious democracy, the rule of Islam and Sharia is brought forward when the nation becomes the ruler. Therefore, one of the important functions of religious intellectuals is to strengthen religious democracy.
 
Conclusion
Ayatollah Khamenei has stated the most important characteristics of religious intellectuals in several cases: having strategic thinking, anti-reaction, attention to rationality and reason, avoiding petrification, removing distortions and misunderstandings, attention and emphasis on real, partial modernity Viewing and avoiding simplistic thinking and superficiality, insight, having the thought of progress and progress, relying on ideals and faith, fairness and justice, striving for scientific progress, not raising doubts, adhering to the system of religious knowledge, enlightenment and moral concerns and Humanity, having critical thinking and scientific-intellectual power. Ayatollah Khamenei sees the functions of religious intellectuals in these cases: Expanding rationality in the direction of increasing self-awareness among social classes, increasing insight in society, strengthening revolutionary identity and religious ideology, confronting the influence of powers, religious democracy, accompanying the leadership of the revolution, avoiding imitation and defeating oneself against Western civilization, promoting and deepening culture It is correct to criticize at the level of officials and people, to guide people in rejecting dominance and arrogance, and building civilization.
From Ayatollah Khamenei's point of view, reflecting on the functions of religious intellectuals makes it clear that the contradictory perception of this term is firstly related to modern religiosity and secondly arises from a misunderstanding of self-centered reason and selectiveness. The only way to protect yourself from suffering this fate is to have a non-contradictory view of religious intellectualism, to have a new-minded view of religion, to have an ultra-modern view of intellectualism and new-thinking, to be committed to intellectualism and religiosity, and to take care of its principles. Based on this, paying attention to rationality is the main function of religious intellectuals. In this regard, rationality is the concept of Islamic rationality based on excellence and monotheism, not the concept of instrumental rationality of the Western foundation itself.