The mutawātir report in the methodology of the theologians (Mütakallimūn): The case of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī

This study examines Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī's conception of mutawātir report within the framework of his theory of knowledge. Drawing upon the discussions found in al-Rāzī's works on kalām, logic, and uṣūl al-fiqh, it analyzes his views on the value, nature, and epistemic status of mutawātir knowledge, as well as the conditions of mutawātir transmission and its relationship to corroborating indicators (qarāʾin). The research is based primarily on al-Rāzī's major works—especially al-Mahsūl and Nihāyat al-'Uqūl—and employs a comparative analysis with the approaches of earlier theologian-jurists such as al-Jassās, al-Bāqillānī, Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Abū'l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī, al-Juwaynī, and al-Ghazālī. According to al-Rāzī, the most significant aspect of mutawātir knowledge is that it constitutes a type of necessary (ḍarūrī) knowledge that arises immediately and without inferential reasoning. Distinguishing himself from al-Bāqillānī and Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, who ground the objectivity of mutawātir knowledge in the unchanging nature of the process by which certainty arises and in the knowledge produced in the hearer, al-Rāzī anchors this objectivity in the principle of the constant and regular operation of custom (ʿāda). In this respect he is close to al-Jassās; however, he diverges from him by refusing to ground the certainty of mutawātir knowledge in experiential knowledge and by insistently emphasizing that necessary knowledge cannot depend on any prior premise. Although al-Rāzī follows the Juwaynī–Ghazālī line on several issues—such as the nature of mutawātir knowledge and its relation to corroborating indicators—he differs from them on the question of its epistemic status. His employment of the method of taḥqīq further distinguishes his analytical approach and focal concerns from those of earlier scholars. This study aims to present al-Rāzī's theory of mutawātir report both in terms of its continuity with the classical uṣūl tradition and its original contributions. In this context, it analyzes al-Rāzī's views on the nature and qualities of mutawātir knowledge within his broader epistemology, as well as on the conditions of mutawātir transmission and its relationship to corroborating indicators, insofar as these are shaped by the epistemic approach he adopts.