The Role of the Rational Virtue of Intellectual Modesty in the Process of Inferring Jurisprudential Rulings

Rational virtues should be acquired by jurisprudents (fuqahā’) and mujtahids in the process of inferring jurisprudential rulings and at the stage of the acquisition of beliefs and issuing fatwas. The lack of such virtues will indubitably amount to lack of reputation and invalidity of the jurisprudential process. We presuppose that scholars of the religion are, like other intellectuals, subject to moral vices and problems either overtly or covertly. There are a number of virtues that contribute to the validity of our knowledge, such as open-mindedness, intellectual diligence, meticulousness and concentration, intellectual modesty, intellectual courage, intellectual caution, intellectual openness, intellectual fairness, and intellectual independence. Since a mujtahid’s beliefs play a role in his ijtihad and inference of jurisprudential rulings, in this paper we examine the role of the rational virtue of intellectual modesty in the process of inferring jurisprudential rulings. In fact, modesty removes the veil of egoism from the mujtahid and from evidence of the rulings, and paves the path to arrive at a more ethical ruling.