The Efficiency of Narration in Recognizing the Doctrinal Knowledge of Religion

This research seeks to find out whether or not we can rely on single narrations in exploring religious beliefs. This paper shows that there is an obvious difference between religious beliefs and fiqhi obligations. To this end, it investigates the evidence about the validity of narrations and the extent its efficiency with regard to realities and religious beliefs. The result of the investigation shows that certainty is a requisite for doing research in this field, whereas in case of the traditions about whose authenticity all agree, there is a need to know their chain of transmission. Due to the possibility that the narrations contain examples of cutting up, referring to the meaning (idea), low level of understanding of some narrators, concealment, and dissimulation relying on their content will be difficult, and accordingly, their content will, in most cases, be unconfirmed. On the other hand, when discovering realities, unlike the case of fiqhi questions, one cannot question validity and soundness. Compared with the narrations dealing with fiqhi questions, the narrations concerning with the inference of reality and explaining religious beliefs meet more difficult conditions.