The Position of Revelation in Identifying Religious Beliefs

Identifying religious beliefs depend on one’s knowledge of the means and sources of inferring them. Reason, nature (Fitrah), intuition, revelation and Sunnah(tradition) are among the sources of inferring religious beliefs. In the inference of religious beliefs, one should have a clear idea about their position and the way of holding them. The aim of this paper is to show the position of the sources of transmitted sciences including revelation and tradition in identifying religious beliefs. To what extent can we rely on the sources of transmitted sciences for discovering beliefs? And, given the fact that the authenticity of the very transmission needs to be confirmed, which group of the beliefs which are known through transmission is acceptable? Using an analytical and descriptive method, this paper, considering the requirements of authentication, seeks to explain how revelation and the transmitted narrations can be efficient for identifying religious beliefs, without resting on the principle of God’s existence and prophethood regarding every religious belief.