“A Comparative Study of the Infallibility from the Perspective of Sayyid Morteza’s Book “Tanziat al-Anbia” and Fakhr Razi’s “Esmat al-Anbia””

The issue of the infallibility of the prophets has always been one of the most important and controversial issues in Islamic theology among Muslim theologians and commentators. Sayyid Morteza (436-355 AH) as a representative of the Imamiyya and Fakhr Razi (543-606 AH) as a representative of the Ash’arite are among the thinkers who have voted in different theological fields on the issue of the infallibility of the prophets. Therefore, due to the prominence of these two theologians, the leading research with a descriptive-analytical method examines the comparison of the infallibility of the prophets in the views of Sayyid Morteza and Fakhr Razi; To examine the commonalities, differences and also if they are affected by each other. The two thinkers in question believe in the principle of the infallibility of the prophets and believe that the divine prophets should be infallible from any kind of filth and sin such as polytheism, infidelity, corruption and destruction both in the axes of belief and in the axes of issuing the laws; Also, in response to possible doubts about the infallibility of the prophets, they have offered almost similar answers.

Therefore, these commonalities between these two views can be used to Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought. Of course, matters can also be considered as their differences in the issue of the infallibility of the prophets. According to the author, the first difference in the nature and definition of the term infallibility is that Sayyid Morteza considers infallibility as divine grace and the infallible person does not commits sin despite his power, while Fakhr-e-Razi, following his predecessor’s elders, considers it as an dogmatic thing and also the time and realm of the infallibility of the prophets is another difference between the two thinkers, as Sayyi Morteza has considered the circle of infallibility as wide and Fakhr-e-Razi as its limit. It seems that the mentioned cases are the most important points of commonality and disagreement between these two thinkers. Finally based on the evidence in the two books, it can be concluded that Fakhr Razi was influenced by Sayyid Morteza on infallibility.