Fitrah and Religious Experience from Viewpoint of Morteza Motahhari and Friedrich Schleiermakher

Following the constant criticism of reason and commonsense reasoning by a group of western philosophers, from Descartes to Kant, the religious thought, beliefs, and convictions had been put at the risk of extinction. Commonsense reasoning and teleological argument were severely weakened and there were people who fearlessly criticized the religious texts using conventional methods. In order to justify religious teachings in the west, people like Schleiermakher has achieved religious experience despite the existing intellectual conditions. Although with a slight delay, these doubts have been finally raised in the Islamic world and caused intellectual challenges in a different way. In contrast to this trend, people like Morteza Motahhari, introduced the argument of primordial nature. In this paper, while explaining religious experience and fitrah from the viewpoint of Morteza Motahhari and Friedrich Schleiermakher, the status of these two attitudes, their similarities, and differences are investigated. This was the beginning of the path based on which the fate of religion and metaphysics were tied together, and of course this intermingling was thicker and deeper in Christianity.

Keywords:

Fitrah , Religious experience , Theology , Schleiermakher , Motahhari