A Critical Consideration of Fanaei’s View of the Reliability of Rational Conjectures

Abolqasem Fanaei believes in the reliability of rational conjectures (zunūn) in fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), taking it to be irrational to discriminate between transmitted (naqlī) and rational conjectures. In this paper, I aim to criticize and assess four of his arguments for the above claim with an analytic method. Upon these considerations, it will turn out that (1) it is possible for God to put aside the practice of rational beings, (2) from an omniscient perspective, it is possible for speculative conjectures to be characteristically more erroneous than sensory conjectures, (3) unreliability of rational conjectures is specific to the realm of Shari’a and fatwas, not other domains of the life of a believer, (4) prohibition of acting upon rational conjectures does not imply circularity, nor is it self-defeating, and nor does it lead to the shutdown of the reason, and (5) predicaments faced by the traditional jurisprudence do not lead to the reliability of rational conjectures. Based on these points, I have shown that Fanaei’s arguments for irrationality are not plausible. Therefore, there is no justification for ignoring the relevant hadiths.