Reexamining the Independent Rationality (Al-Mustaqillat Al-‘Aqliyya) in Shi‘i Osul Al-Fiqh in Lights of Rawls’s Analytical Framework in ‘Theory of Justice’

Reason (al- ‘aql) or independent rationality (al-mustaqillat al-‘aqliyya) are listed as reliable source of Shari‘a precepts in Shi‘i Osul al-fiqh (legal reasoning); Yet, it has played a minor role, if any, in the actual inference of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence). Having this in mind, the present article explores the major causes of the restrictive role of rationality as a source of law and the ways to surmount it. In so doing, Rawls’s arguments in his ‘Theory of Justice’ adumbrates an analytical framework whereby we can remove the ambiguities surrounded the ‘goodness of justice’ and ‘badness of cruelty’- the only two propositions of independent rationality in the mind of Shi‘ite scholars. Employing Rawls’s methodology in osul al-fiqh assists us in developing the role of independent rationality as a real source of law.