Developments of the Employment of Reason in Religion: A Comparison of the Views of al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā and Khwāja Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī

Reason is one of the four sources of Shiite knowledge, inference, and thoughts. The Shiite intellectual history bears witness to the fact that this source has gone through various developments in different aspects, including its employment in kalām (theology) and religious doctrines. A survey of the history of Shiite thought demonstrates that there is a wide range of theories about the use of reason, from minimal rationalism to maximal rationalism. The latter seems to be prominently represented by al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā. He was a prominent figure in Shiite rationalism, and even Islam, in the fifth century AH, and was largely influential on Shiite intellectual history. Shiite kalām was impacted by the School of Baghdad, as formulated by al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā, at least until the ninth century AH. Undoubtedly, Khwāja Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī is another turning point in this regard. His impact on Shiite kalām can be seen in turning kalām into a branch of philosophy and in his scholastic approach to Shiite kalām. This article seeks show the developments of Shiite kalām in terms of its methodology and interactions with reason through a comparative study of the works of al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā and Khwāja Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī. This research takes into consideration the characteristics of rationalism and then evaluate the work of these two prominent Shiite scholars. A major application of reason in solving some of the contemporary epistemic crises is as a valid source in epistemology, the relationship between reason and religious obligation, and the relationship between reason and religion. Among the available sources, we focus on al-Sayyid al-Murtaḍā’s Rasāʾil and Tanzīh al-anbiyāʾ, and Khwāja Naṣīr’s Qawāʿid al-ʿaqāʾid and Tajrīd al-iʿtiqād.