Abu al Hasan al Ash'ari

Biography

Al-Ash'ari was born in Basra, Iraq, and was a descendant of the famous companion of Muhammad, Abu Musa al-Ashari. As a young man he studied under al-Jubba'i, a renowned teacher of Mu'tazilite theology and philosophy. 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). After this experience, he left the Mu'tazalites and became one of its most distinguished opponents, using the philosophical methods he had learned. 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.

Views

After leaving the Mu'tazili school, and joining the side of Traditionalist theologians al-Ash'ari formulated the theology of Sunni Islam. He was followed in this by a large number of distinguished scholars, most of whom belonged to the Shafi'i school of law. 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.

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.

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.

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. 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.

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.

Earlier major scholars also held positive views of al-Ash'ari and his efforts, among them Qadi Iyad and Taj al-Din al-Subki.

Works

The Ashari scholar Ibn Furak numbers Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari's works at 300, and the biographer Ibn Khallikan at 55; 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, 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

Kitāb al-ibāna 'an usūl al-diyāna, is according to his disciples and some modern Western scholars, a forgery 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. 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.