Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari
Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari | |
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| Title | Imam al-Mutakallimin, Imam Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama'ah |
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| Born | AH 260 (873/874) |
| Died | AH 324 (935/936) |
| Era | Islamic golden age |
| Jurisprudence | Sunni |
| Creed | Sunni Shafi'i |
| Main interest(s) | Islamic theology |
| Notable work(s) | Maqalat al-Islamiyyin wa Ikhtilaf al-Musallin (The Treatises of the Islamic Schools), al-Luma' fi al-Rad 'ala Ahl al-Ziyagh wa al-Bida' (Refutation to Heresy), Al-Ibanah 'an Usul al-Diyanah, Risalah ila Ahl al-Thaghr |
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Influenced
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Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī 260–324 AH (874–936 CE) (Arabic: أبو الحسن الأشعري) was a Shafi'i scholar and theologian who founded the school of tenets of faith that bears his name (Ash'ari).[1]
Biography
Al-Ash'ari was born in Basra,[2] Iraq, and was a descendant of the famous companion of Muhammad, Abu Musa al-Ashari.[1] As a young man he studied under al-Jubba'i, a renowned teacher of Mu'tazilite theology and philosophy.[3] He remained a Mutazalite until his fortieth year when al-Ash'ari saw Muhammad in a dream 3 times in Ramadan. Muhammad told him to support what was related from himself, that is, the traditions (hadiths).[4] After this experience, he left the Mu'tazalites and became one of its most distinguished opponents, using the philosophical methods he had learned.[2] Al-Ash'ari then spent the remaining years of his life engaged in developing his views and in composing polemics and arguments against his former Mutazalite colleagues. He is said to have written up to three hundred works, of which only four or five are known to be extant.[5]
Views
After leaving the Mu'tazili school, and joining the side of Traditionalist theologians[6] al-Ash'ari formulated the theology of Sunni Islam.[7] He was followed in this by a large number of distinguished scholars, most of whom belonged to the Shafi'i school of law.[8] The most famous of these are Abul-Hassan Al-Bahili, Abu Bakr Al-Baqillani, al-Juwayni, Al-Razi and Al-Ghazali. Thus Al-Ash'ari’s school became, together with the Maturidi, the main schools reflecting the beliefs of the Sunnah.[8]
In line with Sunni tradition, al-Ash'ari held the view that a Muslim should not be considered an unbeliever on account of a sin even if it were an enormity such as drinking wine or theft. This opposed the position held by the Khawarij.[9]
Al-Ash'ari also believed it impermissible to violently oppose a leader even if he were openly disobedient to the commands of the sacred law.[9]
Al-Ash'ari spent much of his works opposing the views of the Mu'tazili school. In particular, he rebutted them for believing that the Qur'an was created and that deeds are done by people of their own accord.[8] He also rebutted the Mu'tazili school for denying that Allah can hear, see and has speech. Al-Ash’ari confirmed all these attributes stating that they differ from the hearing, seeing and speech of creatures, including man.[8]
Legacy
The 18th century Islamic scholar Shah Waliullah stated:
- A Mujadid appears at the end of every century: The Mujadid of the first century was Imam of Ahlul Sunnah, Umar bin Abdul Aziz. The Mujadid of the second century was Imam of Ahlul Sunnah Muhammad Idrees Shaafi. The Mujadid of the third century was the Imam of Ahlul Sunnah, Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari. The Mujadid of the fourth century was Abu Abdullah Hakim Nishapuri.[10]
Earlier major scholars also held positive views of al-Ash'ari and his efforts, among them Qadi Iyad and Taj al-Din al-Subki.[11]
Works
The Ashari scholar Ibn Furak numbers Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari's works at 300, and the biographer Ibn Khallikan at 55;[12] Ibn Asāker gives the titles of 93 of them, but only a handful of these works, in the fields of heresiography and theology, have survived. The three main ones are:
- Maqālāt al-islāmīyīn,[13] it comprises not only an account of the Islamic sects but also an examination of problems in kalām, or scholastic theology, and the Names and Attributes of Allah; the greater part of this works seems to have been completed before his conversion from the Mutaziltes.
- Kitāb al-luma[14]
- Kitāb al-ibāna 'an usūl al-diyāna,[15] is according to his disciples and some modern Western scholars, a forgery[16] attributed to Al-Ashari; a supposed exposition of his developed theological views and arguments against Mutazilite doctrines where he recanted his previous beliefs. For example, Richard McCarthy, in his Theology of Ash'ari, writes, "...I am unable to subscribe wholeheartedly to the proposition that the ibāna, in the form in which we have it, is a genuine work of al-Asha'ri," comparing the creed in that book to the creed found in al-Ash'ari's Maqālāt.[17] But the Salafists generally claim that it marks his late repentance et his return to the bleifs of the "salaf". The book was supposedly written after he repented from his orthodox Ahlus Sunnah beliefs to heterodoxical anthropomorphic beliefs following his encounter with the extreme sectarian outlaw Al-Hasan ibn 'Ali al-Barbahari and was primarily an attempt to call his previous followers back to Islam.[18]
Early Islam scholars
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References
- ^ a b I.M.N. Al-Jubouri, History of Islamic Philosophy: With View of Greek Philosophy and Early History of Islam, p 182. ISBN 0755210115
- ^ a b John L. Esposito, The Islamic World: Abbasid-Historian, p 54. ISBN 0195165209
- ^ Marshall Cavendish Reference, Illustrated Dictionary of the Muslim World, p 87. ISBN 0761479295
- ^ William Montgomery Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology, p 84. ISBN 0202362728
- ^ I. M. Al-Jubouri, Islamic Thought: From Mohammed to September 11, 2001, p 177. ISBN 1453595856
- ^ Anjum, Ovamir (2012). Politics, Law, and Community in Islamic Thought. Cambrdige University Press. p. 108. Retrieved 14 July 2016.
- ^ John L. Esposito, The Oxford History of Islam, p 280. ISBN 0199880417
- ^ a b c d http://www.arabnews.com/node/211921
- ^ a b Jeffry R. Halverson, Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Sunnism, p 77. ISBN 0230106587
- ^ Izalat al-Khafa, p. 77, part 7.
- ^ Fatwa No. 8001. Who are the Ash'arites? - Dar al-Ifta' al-Misriyyah
- ^ Beirut, III, p.286, tr. de Slaine, II, p.228
- ^ ed. H. Ritter, Istanbul, 1929-30
- ^ ed. and tr. R.C. McCarthy, Beirut, 1953
- ^ tr. W.C. Klein, New Haven, 1940
- ^ http://www.darultahqiq.com/problems-with-al-ibana-of-imam-al-ashari-by-shaykh-wahbi-ibn-sulayman-ghawiji/
- ^ McCarthy, Richard J. (1953). The Theology of Al-Ashari. Imprimerie Catholique. p. 232.
- ^ Richard M. Frank, Early Islamic Theology: The Mu'tazilites and al-Ash'ari, Texts and studies on the development and history of kalām, vol. 2, pg. 172. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2007. ISBN 9780860789789
External links
- Imam Abu‘l-Hasan al-Ash‘ari by Shaykh Gibril Haddad
- Imam Ash’ari Repudiating Asha’rism? by Shaykh Nuh Keller
Further reading
- Thatcher, Griffithes Wheeler (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). p. 729.
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