Ashʿarism Ashʿarism by M. Abdul Hye, M.A, Ph.D, Professor of Philosophy, Government College, Rajshahi (Pakistan) A AL‑ASHʿARĪ’S LIFE AND WORK Ashʿarism is the name of a philosophico‑religious school of thought in Islam that developed during the fourth and fifth/tenth and eleventh centuries. This movement was “an attempt not only to purge Islam of all non‑Islamic elements…
Māturīdiyya -EI2
Māturīdiyya Māturīdiyya, a theological school named after its founder Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī [q.v.] which in the Mamlūk age came to be widely recognised as the second orthodox Sunnī kalām school besides the As̲h̲ʿariyya. The name Māturīdiyya does not appear to have been current before al-Taftazānī (d. 792/1390), who used it evidently to establish the role…
al-As̲h̲ʿarī, Abu ’l-Ḥasan
al-As̲h̲ʿarī, Abu ’l-Ḥasan, ʿalī b. ismāʿīl , theologian, and founder of the school of orthodox theology which bears his name. He is said to have been born in 260/873-4 at Baṣra, and was ninth in descent from the Companion Abū Mūsā al-As̲h̲ʿarī. Little is known of his life. He was one of the best pupils…
Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī
Māturīdī, Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Ḥanafī al-Mutakallim al-Māturīdī al-Samarḳandī is the titular head of the Māturīdite School of theology which, with the As̲h̲ʿarite School, form orthodox Sunnite Islām. The two Schools are equally orthodox, but there has always been a tendency to suppress al-Māturīdī’s name and to put al-As̲h̲ʿarī forward as the…
On Nasafi’s creed
In his article on Creed for Brill’s Encyclopedia of Islam third edition Jon Hover writes: One of the most influential Ḥanafī creeds is the ʿAqāʾid (“Articles of the creed”) of the Māturīdī theologian Najm al-Dīn al-Nasafī (d. 537/1142). This creed differs from earlier creeds in that it begins with epistemological and metaphysical claims typical of kalām theology before…
Glossary
In no particular order ʿayn (lit. “eye”) actual ability (ḥaqīqat al‑qudrah) ability to do good (tawfīq) (also enablement) ability (qudrah) able (qādir) acquired (iktisābī) knowledge acquisition (iktisāb) action(s) divine/of God (fiʿl) secondarily caused (afʿāl mutawallidah) advice (naṣīḥah) allusion, spiritual (ishārah) alms (zakāt) ambiguity (shubhah) texts (mutashābihāt) analogy, legal (qiyās) anthropomorphist mushabbihah apodeictic proof/demonstration (burhān) Apostasy…