The Role of Intellect in the Perspective of Imāmī Jurists

Abstract

In the eyes of Imāmī jurists, the Qurʾan, Sunna, ijmāʿ (consensus) and ʿaql (intellect) are the four sources used to derive religious rulings. Intellect is a religious tool over whose validity for deriving rulings all Imāmī scholars are at one, with the exception of the Akhbārī school. The question of intellect, its realm and the level of its validity has been one of the preoccupations of Shīʿī scholars throughout their history, and this article examines it from four angles.