Adopting direct power attainment strategy through religion by the Iranian Shiite clergies after the Islamic Revolution resulted in fundamental changes in Iran. The present paper tries to answer the question why among the different Iranian social groups only the clergies could attain the government with reference to their power resources. To do so, after the presentation of a brief history of the clergies and their relationship to the contemporary Iranian goverment, the following characteristics are considered as the power resources of the clergies: their idiology, school of thought, and organization; the Wellayat-e Faqih institution; their scientific, moral and economic indipendence; ulama's charismatic personality; popularity, Saviorism (belief in Imam Mahdi as the Savior), the authority of the Quran and traditions and their hermeneutic potentiality, Ijtihad, and the Karbala paradigm.
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