Critical Study of the Differences between the Ash‘arites and the Old and New Mu‘tazilites and the Imamiyeh in Relation to the Intellectual Virtue and Indecency and its Principled Jurisprudential Result

The subject of research in this article is whether the intellect can independently recognize the virtue and indecency of deeds without the help of the Sharī‘a, so that it can be assigned? The early Ash‘arites believe that the intellect needs the teachings of the prophets in knowing the rules, and that Sharī‘a is the only the source of virtue and indecency. But according to the Mu‘tazilites, the first argument in understanding virtue and indecency is the intellect. According to the Imamiyeh, virtue and indecency are intellectual but intellect is not needless of the Sharī‘a and the new Mu‘tazilites in the early twentieth century sought to portray Islam in harmony with the elements of modernity with a new interpretation of Qur’anic concepts. In this article, it is attempted to explain that firstly, the intellect does not need the Sharī‘a in determining the virtue and indecency of deeds. Secondly, in case of contradiction, the legislator’s designation is prior to intellect.