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by
Al-Lacknawi, al-Fawa'id al-Bahiyya fi Tarajim al-Hanafiyya p.
319-320 #412; Ibn Abi al-Wafa', al-Jawahir al-Mudiyya fi Tabaqat al-Hanafiyya
p. 130, 310, 362-363; Al-Kawthari, introduction to al-Bayadi's
Isharat al-Maram
Muhammad ibn
Muhammad ibn Mahmud Abu Mansur al-Samarqandi al-Maturidi al-Hanafi (d.
333) of Maturid in Samarqand, Shaykh al-Islam, one of the two foremost
Imams of the mutakallimūn of Ahl al-Sunna, known in his time as
the Imam of Guidance (Imām al-Hudā), he studied under Abu Nasr al-`Ayadi
and Abu Bakr Ahmad al-Jawzajani. Among his senior students were `Ali ibn
Sa`id Abu al-Hasan al-Rustughfani,1 Abu Muhammad `Abd al-Karim ibn Musa
ibn `Isa al-Bazdawi, and Abu al-Qasim Ishaq ibn Muhammad al-Hakim al-Samarqandi.
He excelled in refuting the Mu`tazila in Transoxiana while his
contemporary Abu al-Hasan al-Ash`ari did the same in Basra and Baghdad.
He died in Samarqand where he lived most of his life. The founder of the
Egyptian Muniriyya Salafiyya Press, Munir `Abduh Agha wrote:
"There is not much
[doctrinal] difference between Ash`aris and Maturidis, hence both groups
are now called Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama`a."2
Al-Maturidi
surpasses Imam al-Tahawi as a transmitter and commentator of Imam Abu
Hanifa's legacy in kalām. Both al-Maturidi and al-Tahawi followed Abu
Hanifa and his companions in the position that belief (al-īmān)
consists in "conviction in the heart and affirmation by the tongue,"
without adding, as do Malik, al-Shafi`i, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and their
schools, "practice with the limbs." Al-Maturidi, as also related from
Abu Hanifa, went so far as to declare that the foundation of belief
consisted only in conviction in the heart, the tongue's affirmation
being a supplementary integral or pillar (rukn zā'id).3
Among
al-Maturidi's works:
* Kitab
al-Tawhid on the doctrine of Ahl al-Sunna. In it he states the
following:
"The Muslims
differ concerning Allah's place. Some have claimed that Allah is
described as being 'established over the Throne' (`alā al-`arshi
mustawin), and the Throne for them is a dais (sarīr)
carried by the angels and surrounded by them [as in the verses]: {And
eight will uphold the Throne of their Lord that day, above them}
(69:17) and {And you see the angels thronging round the Throne}
(39:75) and {Those who bear the Throne, and all who are round
about it} (40:7). They adduced as a proof for that position His
saying: {The Merciful established Himself over the Throne}
(20:5) and the fact that people raise their hands toward the heaven
in their supplications and whatever graces they are hoping for. They
also say that He moved there after not being there at first, on the
basis of the verse {Then He established Himself over the Throne}
(57:4).
"Others say
that He is in every place because He said {There is no secret
conference of three but He is their fourth, nor of five but He is
their sixth, nor of less than that or more but He is with them
wheresoever they may be} (58:7), and {We are nearer to him
than his jugular vein} (50:16) and {And We are nearer unto
him than ye are, but ye see not} (56:85) and {And He it is
Who in the heaven is God, and in the earth God} (43:84). This
group consider that to say that He is in one place at the exclusion
of another necessitate a limit for Him, and that every limited
object comes short of whatever is greater than it, which would
constitute a disgraceful defect. Further, they consider that to be
in one place necessitates need to that place together with the
necessity of boundaries....
"Others deny
the ascription of place to Allah, whether one place or every place,
except in the metaphorical senses that He preserves them and causes
them to exist.
"Shaykh Abu
Mansur [al-Maturidi] - may Allah have mercy on him - says: The sum
of all this is that the predication of all things to Him and His
predication - may He be exalted! - to them is along the lines of His
description in terms of exaltation (`uluw) and loftiness (rif`a),
and in terms of extolment (ta`zīm) and majesty (jalāl),
as in His saying: {the Sovereignty of the heavens and the earth}
(2:107, 3:189, 5:17-18, 5:40 etc.) {Lord of the heavens and the
earth} (13:16, 17:102, 18:14, 19:65, etc.), "God of all
creation" (ilāh al-khalq), Lord of the worlds (1:2, 5:28,
6:45, 6:162, 7:54, etc.), "above everything" (fawqa kulli shay')
and so forth. As for the predication of specific objects to Him, it
is along the lines of His specific attribution with generosity (al-karāma),
high rank (al-manzila), and immense favor (al-tafdīl)
for what is essentially meant to refer to Him, as in His sayings {Lo!
Allah is with those who keep their duty unto Him} (16:128), {And
the places of worship are only for Allah} (72:18), {The
she-camel of Allah} (7:73, 11:64, 91:13), "The House of Allah" (bayt
Allāh), and other similar instances. None of these examples is
understood in the same way as the predication of created object to
one another....
"Abu Mansur -
may Allah have mercy on him! - further says: The foundation of this
issue is that Allah Almighty was when there was no place, then
locations were raised while He remains exactly as He ever was.
Therefore, He is as He ever was and He ever was as He is now.
Exalted is He beyond any change or transition or movement or
cessation! For all these are portents of contingency (hudth)
by which the contingent nature of the world can be known, and the
proofs of its eventual passing away....
"Furthermore
[concerning the claim that Allah is on the Throne], there is not, in
the context of spatial elevation, any particular merit to sitting or
standing, nor exaltation, nor any quality of magnificence and
splendor. For example, someone standing higher than roofs or
mountains does not deservedly acquire loftiness over someone who is
below him spatially when their essence is identical. Therefore, it
is not permissible to interpret away the verse [20:5] in that sense,
when it is actually pointing to magnificence and majesty. For He has
said {Verily, it is your Lord Who created the heavens and the
earth} (7:54, 10:3, 21:56) thereby pointing to the extolment of
the Throne, which is something created of light, or a substance [or
jewel] the reality of which is beyond the knowledge of creatures. It
was narrated that the Prophet - Allah bless and greet him - while
describing the sun, said: "Gibrīl brings it, in his hand, some of
the light of the Throne with which he clothes it just as one of you
wears his clothes, and so every day that it rises"; he also
mentioned that the moon receives a handful of the light of the
Throne.4 Therefore, the predication of istiwā' to the Throne
is along two lines: first, its extolment in the light of all that He
said concerning His authority in Lordship and over creatures;
second, its specific mention as the greatest and loftiest of all
objects in creation, in keeping with the customary predication of
magnificent matters to magnificent objects, just as it is said:
"So-and-so has achieved sovereignty over such-and-such a country,
and has established himself over such-and-such a region." This is
not to restrict the meaning of this sovereignty literally, but only
to say that it is well-known that whoever owns sovereignty over
this, then whatever lies below it is meant a fortiori."5
* Kitab Radd
Awa'il al-Adilla, a refutation of the Mu`tazili al-Ka`bi's book
entitled Awa'il al-Adilla;
* Radd
al-Tahdhib fi al-Jadal, another refutation of al-Ka`bi;6
* Kitab Bayan
Awham al-Mu`tazila;
* Kitab
Ta'wilat al-Qur'an ("Book of the Interpretations of the Qur'an"), of
which Ibn Abi al-Wafa' said: "No book rivals it, indeed no book even
comes near it among those who preceded him in this discipline."7 Hajji
Khalifa cites it as Ta'wilat Ahl al-Sunna and quotes as follows
al-Maturidi's definition of the difference between "explanation" (tafsīr)
and "interpretation" (ta'wīl):
"Tafsīr
is the categorical conclusion (al-qat`) that the meaning of
the term in question is this, and the testimony before Allah
Almighty that this is what He meant by the term in question; while
ta'wīl is the preferment (tarjīh) of one of several
possibilities without categorical conclusion nor testimony."8
* Kitab
al-Maqalat;
* Ma'akhidh
al-Shara'i` in Usul al-Fiqh;
* Al-Jadal fi
Usul al-Fiqh;
* Radd al-Usul
al-Khamsa, a refutation of Abu Muhammad al-Bahili's exposition of
the Five Principles of the Mu`tazila;9
* Radd al-Imama,
a refutation of the Shi`i conception of the office of Imam;
* Al-Radd `ala
Usul al-Qaramita;
* Radd Wa`id
al-Fussaq, a refutation of the Mu`tazili doctrine that all grave
sinners among the Muslims are doomed to eternal Hellfire.
Most of the Hanafi
school follows al-Maturidi in doctrine, but he evidently achieved lesser
fame than al-Ash`ari because the latter entered into countless debates
to defeat the opponents of Ahl al-Sunna while al-Maturidi, as
Imam al-Kawthari said, "lived in an environment in which innovators had
no power." The absence of a notice on Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi in
al-Dhahabi's Siyar is a major omission in that masterpiece of
biographical history.
NOTES
1He narrated from
Imam Abu Hanifa the saying: kullu mujtahidin musībun wa al-haqqu `inda
Allāhi wāhid which means "Every scholar who strives [towards truth]
is correct [whatever his finding], even if the truth in Allah's presence
is one." Accordingly, al-Rustughfani differed with al-Maturidi who
considered that the mujtahid is wrong in his ijtihād if his finding
differs from the truth. Ibn Abi al-Wafa', Tabaqat al-Hanafiyya
(p. 310, 362-363).
2In Namudhaj
min al-A`mal al-Khayriyya (p. 134).
3Al-Tahawi, `Aqida
§62: "Belief consists in affirmation by the tongue and acceptance by the
heart." See "Ibn Abi al-`Izz," Sharh al-`Aqida al-Tahawiyya (4th
ed. p. 373-374, 9th ed. p. 332). See also Risala Abi Hanifa ila `Uthman
al-Batti in `Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda, Namadhij (p. 21-28).
4Something similar
is narrated - without naming the angel - as part of a very long hadith
from Ibn `Abbas by Abu al-Shaykh with a very weak chain in al-`Azama
(4:1163-1179). Another hadith states: "The Messenger of Allah - Allah
bless and greet him - told me that the sun, the moon, and the stars were
created from the light of the Throne." Narrated from Anas by Abu al-Shaykh
in al-`Azama (4:1140). See also al-Suyuti's al-Haba'ik fi
Akhbar al-Mala'ik.
5Al-Maturidi,
Kitab al-Tawhid (p. 72).
6Cf. Hajji Khalifa,
Kashf al-Zunun (1:518).
7Ibn Abi al-Wafa',
al-Jawahir al-Mudiyya (p. 130).
8In Hajji Khalifa,
Kashf al-Zunun (1:334-335).
9The "Five
Principles" of the Mu`tazila are:
-
Tawhīd
entailing a denial of the Divine "Attributes of Meanings" (sifāt
al-ma'ānī) and of the vision of Allah Most High by the believers
in the next world - although both tenets are mentioned in the Qur'an;
-
'Adl or
Divine Justice, entailing the position that Allah Most High cannot
possibly create the evil deeds of His servants, therefore they are
in charge of their own destinies and create the latter themselves
through a power which Allah deposited in them - a denial of the
verse {Allah creates you and what you do} (37:95);
-
Reward and
Punishment, entailing the belief that Allah Most High, of necessity,
rewards those who do good and punishes those who do evil, and He
does not forgive grave sinners unless they repent before death, even
if they are Muslims - a denial of the verses that state explicitly
that Allah forgives whom He wills and punishes whom He wills and a
denial of the intercession of the Prophet - Allah bless and greet
him - for grave sinners among the Muslims;
-
Belief,
whereby they held that grave sinners were considered neither
believers nor disbelievers and so construed for them a "half-way
status" between the two (al-manzila bayn al-manzilatayn) in
Hellfire;
-
Commanding
good and forbidding evil is obligatory upon the believers, and this
is the sole principle in which they are in agreement with the
majority of Muslims.
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