A Comparative Study of Allameh Majlesi's and Allameh Tabatabai's Views on the Nature and Functions of Reason

Bihar al-Anwar is the most important and comprehensive hadith collection compiled by the Shia scholar Allameh Majlesi, who represents the philosophical thought of transcendental hikmah or al-hikmah al-mutaaliyah at modern time. The annotations Allameh Tabatabai made to this book are mainly criticisms of Allameh Majlesi's views and statements. A more comprehensive study of these annotations, thus, facilitates not only the revival of the annotation-writing and critical-thinking traditions but also the recognition of the differences and similarities of approaches and doctrines between these two great religious scholars.This research is an attempt to clarify, explain, analyze, criticize and study two of most controversial annotations Allameh Tabatabai made to Bihar al-Anwar. It is worth emphasizing that the criticism of Allameh Majlesi's views made the present researchers devote a large part of the research to studying and clarifying them. Accordingly, they sought to study his definitions of reason according to the terms and idioms of three main schools of philosophy and recognize the reasons for his cynicism about the philosophers and their views. In addition, his approach to the study of religion and religious texts and his concerns about the metaphysical reasons are examined, and Allameh Tabatabai's criticisms, claims and reasons are studied to demonstrate their veracity.