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Uzbekistan: a land multifarious geniuses. IMAM AL-MATURIDI (Part 3)

The courage of the genius

The historical situation in which there existed the Islamic science of kalam and its characterization by the greatest master of Islamic kalam Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and his time interest Imam al-Maturidi’s most of the followers. In the following article, we try to express our vision of the historical situation in which the theory of Islam was organized.

In order to understand the essence of teachings promoted by Imam al-Maturidi and to imagine the political, spiritual and moral situation under which this teaching was promoted, it is necessary to study and grasp the situation perfectly well. It was a time when there appeared different trends and parties which tried to interpret the essence of the ayahs and suras of the Holy Qur’an in their own vision and consequently there appeared different approaches to these interpretations. From this disagreement most of the devoted Muslims suffered much and faced proble ms in solving these discordances.

A number of different parties supporting these discordances began to grow from the 8th centuiy and the second half of the 9th century. In the first half of the 10th century, they reached their peak. One of these trends in Islam was a party called “Mu’tazilis” who expressed one-sided approach to the interpretation of rules of Islam. In their fight against opponents, they based their visions on the mind only. They were so deeply devoted to their own views that they tried to interpret the ideas and rules of Islam in their own way which defended their wrong approach to the real facts, whereas these rules and approaches were vividly and clearly interpreted in the sources of Islamic science. Mu’tazilis tried to interpret the Hadiths mentioned by the leading experts, the representatives of the Sahabis and Tabi’is in their own interests. If these Hadiths did not meet their interests, they considered Hadiths even wrong. As has been mentioned by some authors,according to the demands of Mu’tazilis,the mind was the only means of differentiating the right and wrong. In the disputable questions of faith and belief, they were also on the wrong way of understanding the essence of the question under discussion.

In order to confirm our vision on this problem,we would like to provide the cases of approaching the person who was obliged to make a great sin against the laws of Islam.

One of the Islamic parties called “Khavarijs” considered that a person who committed a great sin against the rules of Islam is no more a Muslim but a kafir. However, the representatives of another party called “Murji’as” express an opinion on this question that a person who committed a great sin against the laws of Islam remains a Muslim with the image of Allah in his soul but he should be punished in accord with the laws of Islam.

The representatives of the party called “Mu’tazilis” support intermediate position in the discussion of this question. According to their view, the person who committed a great sin against the laws of Islam is neither a Muslim nor a kafir, and he occupies a place between them in the “arasat”, a place called in Arabic “manzila bayna-l-manzilatayn” meaning “a place between two places”. That means that even if this person had a good will and committed many positive acts keeping the name of Allah in his soul during his life, he will be tortured in the fire of the hell.

Although “Mu’tazilis” had a good will and occupied a neutral position in the questions under discussion, they could not find a compromise between mind and its expression (utterance), in other words they could not find the golden mean between the religion and its philosophy. In the discussion of most key questions, they relied on the Greek philosophy and constructed their ideas on the principles of mind. Even in the process of understanding the ideas of not only ayahs of the Holy Qur’an and Hadiths of Prophet Muhammad (saas) but also in the interpretation of the ideas of the sound mind, they promoted the wrong views on the question under discussion and preferred the philosophical sources to the Holy Sources of Islam. In the discussion of a number of questions dealing with the science of kalam in Islam, the “Mu’tazilis” occupied a one­sided position of the case.

As to the representatives of the party Salafs (the experts of the past), i.e. lawyers and experts in the science of Hadiths existing before “Mu’tazilis”, they also refused to have debates on the most important problems of Islam. According to their belief, discussing the principles of belief and organizing debates on the main principles of religion leads to the division of the believers into different parties.

According to the written sources, the three main founders of the Sunnah order of Islam — mainly Imam Malik ibn Anas, Imam ash-Shafi’i and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal did not recognize the science of kalam in Islam and discredited the scientists who were engaged in this science. Imam Malik even mentioned: “In our country Muslims have already refused the science of kalam in the religion”, that is “Ahl al-kalam ahl al-bid’at”. Imam ash-Shafi’i expressed his relation to the science of kalam in religion in the following words: “If the Muslims knew how much the science of kalam contains unnecessary and useless information in religion, they would run away from this science as if they were facing the terrible lion”.

Ubaydulla Uvatov Professor, Doctor of History
Press service of ISRCIB

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