A Critique of the Idea of Religious Autonomous Intellect

Mohammad Reza Hakimi deserves to be considered as one of the pillars of the school of tafkīk in modern time. He could introduce this school to the public through his fascinating and readable works. The religious autonomous intellect presented by the followers of school of tafkīk including Hakimi is an attempt for finding a clear understanding of religious propositions and purifying them from eclectic and imported ideas. According to the followers of this school intellect is divided broadly into two kinds, pre-religious and post-religious. Furthermore, they emphasize on the independence and self-sufficiency of post-religious intellect and the religious autonomous intellect from other epistemic areas, because they believe that due to its connection with divine revelation this kind of intellect is free from all sorts of needs. Using descriptive and analytical method and concentrating on Hakimi's works, this paper criticizes this view. The findings shows this view is not strictly valid because it has serious weaknesses and shortcomings, such as ambiguity in the nature and elements which awe identity to religious autonomous intellect and the contradictions between Hakimi's views and the foundations of the tafkīki school, which cannot be easily ignored.