The Status of Reason in Theological School of Baghdad as Viewed By Imamiyya

Theological school of Baghdad in the fourth century is considered the rationalist school and its works attest to this claim. Many researchers claim that Shaykh Mufid and his students in the school of Baghdad approached Mu'tazilah and adopted their rationalist method. Examining the role of reason in the theological school, the author of the present paper seeks to judge the accuracy of the claim. Although theologians of Baghdad consider religious knowledge as the product of rational reasoning and its acquiring as an obligation upon man, they differ about two issues: first of all, who makes it obligatory upon the people? Secondly, whether or not the wisdom is in need of Revelation when acquiring the knowledge? In this study it was shown that Shaykh Mufid and his disciple Karajaki hold that knowledge is an obligation (by God’s Order) and regard the wisdom in need of revelation in all stages, while Sayyid Murtada and his students (in the same way of the Mu'tazilah) consider the obligation as a matter of intellect and regard it independent of religion in its reasoning.