Ontological analysis of faith in Islamic philosophy

Abstract

The term faith has different meanings. Belief in religious ideas or in general cognitive judgments is the meaning that will be discussed in more detail in this paper. Given the exceptional importance of faith in designing a person's life, even in a non-religious aspect, we will explore different dimensions of this human phenomenon in the Islamic tradition. Given that theological debates do not talk about the essence of faith but about its relationship with human actions, we have paid attention to Islamic philosophers and their ontological view of faith so as to present the essential properties of faith. The names of man's cognitive powers relating to the origin of belief are not the same in all Islamic scientific disciplines and are based on different descriptions of the human cognitive system. The mind and the heart are the two most frequently mentioned powers from which man's belief originates, and according to the Qur'anic text and Islamic traditions, they have enough common properties to be marked as the highest level of not only human knowledge but also of being. In Islamic philosophy the intellect is a supramaterial being that does not depend on matter either in its being or in its actions.