فصلنامه تحقیقات کلامی
پیاپی 4 (بهار 1393)

Theological school of Baghdad in the fourth century is considered the rationalist school and its works attest to this claim. Many researchers claim that Shaykh Mufid and his students in the school of Baghdad approached Mu'tazilah and adopted their rationalist method. Examining the role of reason in the theological school, the author of the present paper seeks to judge the accuracy of the claim. Although theologians of Baghdad consider religious knowledge as the product of rational reasoning and its acquiring as an obligation upon man, they differ about two issues: first of all, who makes it obligatory upon the people? Secondly, whether or not the wisdom is in need of Revelation when acquiring the knowledge? In this study it was shown that Shaykh Mufid and his disciple Karajaki hold that knowledge is an obligation (by God’s Order) and regard the wisdom in need of revelation in all stages, while Sayyid Murtada and his students (in the same way of the Mu'tazilah) consider the obligation as a matter of intellect and regard it independent of religion in its reasoning.

Iztirari (emergency) knowledge, as the belief of most Imami people in the theological schools of Qom and Kufa, changed gradually in the theological school of Baghdad. Tracing the evolutionary history of emergency knowledge in Baghdad suggests that from among Nobakhties, Abu Sahl Nobakhti held that all types of knowledge requires arguments and thus are Kasbi (acquisitive), but Abu Muhammad who did not consider all types of knowledge as emergency, consider the knowledge of God as permitted to be emergency or of acquisition. From the time of Nobakhties to the time of Shaykh Mufid, only a succinct statement of Abulqasim Kufi has been left which demonstrates that knowledge is of emergency quality. Finally, in the era of Shaykh Mufid and then Shaykh Tusi and Sayyid Murtada, emergency knowledge was denied outright, while acquisitive knowledge was highlighted.

The relationship between Essence and Attributes of God is one of the most important theological, philosophical and mystical issues about which various theories have been proposed. Ibn Maytham, theologian, philosopher and mystic of the thirteenth century, accepted the idea of identicalness of attributes to essence in respect to the other presented ideas. But, he, explaining the philosophy of description of the existence of God and His attributes, considers the divine attributes as itibari (invented). It seemingly does not contradict the theory of identicalness, but rather it is a detailed explanation of the same theory. Ibn Maytham, inspired by the words of Imam Ali (AS) on the negation of attributes, considers the description of God by means of itibari (invented) attributes as the early stages of knowledge of the Truth. He regards the ultimate purity of knowledge as the purpose of mystic journey in rejecting the attributes of God and viewing His Essence without considering anything else.

Those who are against Shia school of thought have raised a lot of doubts and questions on the verse of Wilayah (Ma'idah: 55). One of these questions is the fourth question of Fakhr Razi while explaining the verse of Wilayah. Fakhr Razi, based on the context, claims that since the previous verse (Ma'idah: 54) is about Abu Bakr and the strongest reason for the validity of his Imamate and the caliphate, therefore the later verse (Ma'idah: 55) cannot be concerned with the wilayah of Imam Ali (peace be upon him). If not, there will be a contradiction. Therefore, he concludes that the Shia argument, that the verse of Wilayah is a proof of the Imamate of Imam Ali (peace be upon him) is incorrect. But to the Shia scholars and theologians, the verse in question (Ma'idah: 54) does not imply the Imamate and the caliphate of Abu Bakr, but this verse does not concern Abu Bakr and his alleged traditions are also unreliable by document and indication. After a full explanation of Fakhr Razi's claim, the author of the present paper evaluates it in a comparative discussion and demonstrates that these two verses are in full coordination and alignment.

After the decline of Kufa school of thought in the late second century AH, the scientific legacy of the school was transferred to the rest of the Shia Imami dwelling places. An important part of Khorasan and Transoxania is one of those places. There is no completely independent study of intellectual currents in this area. The author of the present article tries to identify the present trends in Khorasan and Transoxania, from the beginning of the Minor Occultation to the time of Shaykh Saduq, and pursue their relationship to the scientific environment of Kufa as far as it is possible. This study shows that some current cultural beliefs in Khorasan and Transoxania, such as the theological and juridical movement of Hisham ibn Hakam and Yunus ibn Abd al-Rahman and the hadith-oriented movement and the movement of those who are accused of ghuluw (extremism), have their roots in the school of Kufa. After a while, these groups migrated from Khorasan to other areas such as Iraq and Qom, although some movements, such as Mu'tazili-oriented Imamis were considered as new movements in Khorasan at that time.

One of the Jewish intellectual movements in the Middle Ages is the theological movement. The movement was spread to the east and to some extent to the west of the Muslim world between the ninth and twelfth centuries AD. Jewish theologians, including rabbis and Karaites, influenced by the Islamic theology, especially the Mutazili theology, seek to consolidate its doctrines and beliefs. Before them, Philo of Alexandria and the church fathers had raised many theological issues, but medieval Jewish thinkers were familiar with the issues by the Muslims. Jewish thinkers discussed their common concerns with Muslims as they were following their own issues. In general, there are two trends within the movement: first, Rabbis’ trend that is their full belief in the authority of tradition. It is different from theology of the Bible and the Rabbis’ one before the ninth century; second, Karaites’ trend that they basically do not believe in the authority of tradition. The present article briefly discusses how Jewish theologians interact with Muslim theologians, only in terms of their emphasis on the role and function of reason in justification and explanation of the doctrines and religious beliefs.

Ibn Rawandi was Mu'tazili for a period and then became Imami. The author of the present article tries to deal with the issue by answering the following questions: How Ibn Rawandi accepted the Imami school and within the framework of which Imami intellectual trends? Has he, considering his Mu'tazili tendencies, somehow introduced the methods and content of the Mu'tazilah thoughts into Imami theology and thereafter created a certain literature in Imami theology or just followed the general flow of theology before him? With the aim to clarify the situation of Shia theology in the third century AH, as well as a clear idea of the Imami thought in theology school of Kufa and Baghdad, by way of comparison between Ibn Rawandi thoughts and Hisham ibn Hakam, the representative of the Imami theology in Kufa, the author of the paper concludes that Ibn Rawandi can be considered a follower of Imami theological method in Kufa. It seems that, Ibn Rawandi in a friendly encounter with Mu’tazilites attempted to explain the cognitive system of Imamia through revival of the Imami School of Theology in Kufa.