Basic Beliefs and the Way to Acquire Objective and Essential Knowledge from the Viewpoint of Muslim Philosophers and a Novel and Ontological Analysis of them

In classical philosophy, a collection of suppositions that man attempts to discover and explains their truth on the basis of conformity criterion is called ma‘rifa (intuitive knowledge). The desirable ma‘rifa is one which possesses the two qualities of objectivity and necessity. Such ma‘rifa should undoubtedly be conceived in a process that both guarantees the reflection of the realities of matters and enjoys a high power of resistance against skeptical attacks. In this case, the acquired ma‘rifa would hold the desirable excellences, i.e., objectivity and necessity. In order to achieve such ma‘rifa, the Muslim philosophers have brought up the discourses of evident attestations and the criterion for their self-evidence; and while believing in the objectivity and necessity of the self-evident, they have figured the reference of the theoretical to the self-evident as a condition for the objectivity and necessity of the theoretical.The main purpose of this article is to present a critical review of the Muslim philosophers concerning evident attestations and the criterion for their self-evidence, to explain and critically review the supplementary approaches in contemporary era, to discuss the degree to which each has succeeded in explaining the truthfulness of the evident attestations and the guarantee of the objective and necessary ma‘rifa. The article concludes by suggesting the ontological approach as a new approach, which, by relying on the notion of existence and the ontological analysis of basic attestations and the primary evident principles, solves the problem.