the review of the belief of “imamate” of the outstanding rationalists of the mu’tazilite scholars: the fist half of the 3rdhijri century

the subject of current article is a review of the rationalist beliefs of the mu’tazilite scholars of the 3rd century in regard to the issue of “imamate”. the first half of the 3rd century is a very special period of time in islamic history during which superiority of the doctrine of “rationalism” or “following wisdom and being reasonable” is highly evident. the issue of “leadership” or “imamate” is one of the first questions, which from the beginning resulted in the appearance of different perspectives, and thus diverse schools of thoughts including several schools of the rationalists appeared. hence, this study endeavors to review their way of conclusion of the rational matters, and simultaneously answer to the question that how imamate was perceived within the circles of mu’tazilite scholars of the first half of the 3rd century? in responding to this question, there is a claim expressing that their perspectives in regard to this question throughout that period of time were not harmonized, and there were differences of viewpoints; and in this respect, they can be divided into various categories. the two significant paradigms of the imamate of “mafzoul-e-fazel” and that of “fazel” from two different standpoints can be considered as two of the important convictions of the mu’tazilite scholars of this era in this regard. it can be concluded that most of the various views ultimately were the results of those two convictional paradigms of the mu’tazilites, which were accomplished in accordance to the historical traditions in respect to the issue of imamate