Fakhr al-Din al-Razi on the Extent of Prophets' Innocence

Abstract

According to Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, it is essential for the prophets to be infallible after the beginning of their prophetic mission. Yet he doesn’t authorize chastity before mission for the prophets and believes that although prophets do not commit sins intentionally, they may do unintentionally. In his view, the extent of prophets' innocence includes four domains of belief, propagation and mission, laws and judgments as well as actions and behaviors. On the basis of some foundations such as determinism implied by innocence and some reasons such as appealing to obviousness and also some pieces of evidence from Qur’an such as Q72:23, Al-Razi has tried to prove prophets' innocence. In this regard, he has also replied to some doubts such as the one proposed due to Q21:87.

Keywords

• prophets' innocence
• the extent of prophets’ innocence
• the reasons of innocence
• doubts about prophets' innocence
• fakhr al-din al-razi