The Domain of Reason from the Viewpoint of the Asharites

Since different Islamic schools have different views to the scope of the human reason in knowing religion, the article at hand aimed at answering the question that “If Asharites have kept their literalist views, or have accepted reason as a tool for knowing the religion”. To this end, the article explored their intellectual and theoretical principles from the viewpoint of reason and finally proved that despite the Asharites’ traditionalist view to reason – based on which they prioritize narration over reason and turn their attention to the literal aspects of the Qur’ān and the traditions – it might not be said that they do not use the capacities of reason to understand religion, or that they are the avid opponents of reason. According to the view taken by this article, how could Ashari – who founded his theological thoughts based on the intellectual reason – eliminates reason totally from his thoughts and opposes it?! As an evidence to the contrary, we might say that he has relied on reason to provide explanations in various religious and theological issues such as the eternity of the Qur’ān, intercession, and the appointment of Imam. These are evident in the works of Ashari and his followers such as Ghazzali and Fakhr Razi, and can be used to support the conclusions of this article.