Khomeynī's doctrine of the Guardianship of the jurist (velāyat-e faqīh) enshrined in the Islamic Republic’s Constitution revolutionized Shiite law while perpetuating the legal dualism established in the Qājār period. This dualism, already central during the Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911), has been exacerbated in the new state of 1979: the scope of Islamic law (fiqh) expanded within state law. This dichotomy in force in Iran has generated many doctrinal controversies. Indeed, jurists and philosophers of law highlighted the intrinsic paradoxes of the heterogeneity of law and its practical inconsistencies. It encouraged them to elaborate a new epistemology of law. Rather than the dominant metaphysical and heteronomous conception of law endorsed by preeminent clerics such as ‘Abdollāh Javādī Amolī (b. 1933), they promote an effective and human rights-oriented approach. Moreover, unlike the dominant apologetic and ideological reading, they favor a critical and historical approach. Their goal is no longer to elaborate an ideal Islamic government or state-building as in the 1980s, but rather to perpetuate the state. To do so, they analyze the relation between the Islamic Republic and Islamic law from a new perspective and with a new methodology. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Islamic law is gradually reconsidered as a historical and patrimonial element of law, rather than a structuring element. More specifically, we focus on a new legal thinking undergoing at Shahid Beheshti University Law Faculty in Tehran since the 2000-2010s. Jurists and philosophers of law including Mohammad Rāsekh (b. 1963) are elaborating modern theories of law. Observing the immobility (rokūd) of law as a result of the legal duality, as well as the inability of fiqh to answer modern legal questions, they call for a reform of law. Islamic law should no longer be the “center of gravity” of law but rather a “transition period”. While the current regime’s law primarily focuses on the expediency of the regime (maslahat), it is inevitable in modern times to enshrine individuality in modern law to guarantee the realization of human rights. Therefore, rather than a metaphysical and ideal conception of law, this tendency favors a pragmatic approach based on political effectiveness and inclusion of believers and non-believers. This new epistemology of law envisions sharī’a and fiqh as a part of a moral system rather than norms regulating daily life.