In the symposium that organized by the Department of Arabic Language and Rhetoric, Faculty of Islamic Sciences, Istanbul Medeniyet University between May 31 and June 1, 2024, the issues of whether the evidence of literal evidence is certain and how this certainty can be achieved were discussed in depth. The symposium first examined the nature and types of evidence, and what a verbal evidence is. Then, the question of what role evidential evidence plays in the relationship between words and meaning was analyzed.
The symposium focused on the problem of the certainty of literal proofs, the disputes about this issue, and the contexts in which disciplines approach this issue in the tradition of Islamic thought. In addition, the question of whether the view that literal proofs do not express certainty stems from the transmission of linguistic material was discussed.
Following these discussions, how the issue of the certainty of literal proofs is reflected in the disciplines of tafsīr, kalām and usul al-fiqh was investigated. Imam Māturīdī's analysis of the certainty of literal proofs and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī's systematic treatment of this issue in his exegesis are presented in detail. In addition, the role of literal proofs in Sadr al-Shariah's thought on the methodology of fiqh and how he analyzed the issue were identified. In the symposium, the reflections of the issue on theological debates were evaluated with a special focus on Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjānī.
