Reason, Faith & Authority: a Shiite Perspective

Faith requires reason

As we saw above, reason comes before faith, and proves the existence of God and His attributes, like His omnipotence, omniscience, goodness and charity, and etc. For this purpose, there are many intellectual discussions in the Shi'ite theological books and, indeed, one part of Islamic theology is called “intellectual kalam”. Imam Sadiq (A) referred to faith as a soldier of reason or its minister.21 And in another narration, he said: “with reason, worshippers know their Creator, and know that they are creations of Him and He is their Lord … and with reason the worshippers separate good and evil acting and …”22

Faith, however, is more than knowledge; reason, by securing required knowledge, just prepares the ground for faith. In the end it is the individual himself that decides whether to commit himself or not. A person becomes faithful and a believer only when he has respect and love for certain facts i.e. articles of faith. Once the Prophet Muhammad asked his companions of “the firmest handhold of faith”.

They suggested different things like prayer and hajj. When they could not give the appropriate answer the Prophet said:

“The firmest handhold of faith is to love for the sake of God and to hate for the sake of God, to befriend God's friends and to renounce His enemies.”23

The same idea is emphasised by Imams of the Household of the Prophet. For example, in reply to the question whether love and hatred derive from faith, Imam Sadiq said: “Is faith anything but love and hate?”24 It is also narrated that Imam Baqir said: “The faith is love and love is the faith.”25