Comparative Study of the Rationality of Religious Beliefs from the Perspectives of Ghazzli and Mulla Sadra

Relation between religion and rationality has always been subject of conspicuous discussion in both Islamic world and the West. The present article is to review the subject-matter from viewpoints of two representatives of Islamic thought al-Ghazali and Mulla Sadra. Al-Ghazali who is most known as advocating fideism recognizes the theoretical reason but deems it to be feeble to understand faith and thus he even prefers the faith of ordinary people to philosophical reason. Mulla Sadra, however, gives much weight to reason and rational arguments in the realm of faith. Though he has allusion to limitations of reason, he considers it as playing a prominent part in understanding religious statements. The present article is to bring up the points of resemblance and difference of both viewpoints by making contrast and comparison between the ideas of the two thinkers.