The Philosophy of Action and the Theory of Historical Habit in Theology and their Applications in the field of Prophecies: Al-Fakhr Al-Razi as a Case Study

Abstract

This paper aimed to peruse the epistemological foundations of some of the theological evidence about the revelation of Qur'an and the fact that it is a text of a divine nature. These foundations are related to the speakers’ philosophy of action, which are also based on the analysis of human acts and their conditions of existence.  This would lead to the analysis of the actions of the Mecca and Medina communities and their groups in order to conclude that the actions of the different groups of these communities could be rationally understood and interpreted only by acknowledging that the Qur'an is a Divine Revelation and not a pure human product. If this issue is not recognized, our knowledge of human acts, of the laws of human conduct, and indeed of history, becomes threatened and ungrounded. Therefore, this paper adopted a systematic approach that is based on examining and analyzing Razi's inference on the divine source of the Quran, and exploring the epistemological foundations for his perception. The paper concluded that Razi relies on two foundations: the philosophy of action (building human action on rational choices), and the theory of historical habit.