Ash‘ari, Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-
Ash‘ari, Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al- (Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-Ash‘ari) (Abū al-Hasan Alī ibn Ismā'īl al-Ash'arī) (874 – 936). Muslim theologian who was the founder of orthodox scholasticism (kalam) and of the Ash‘ariyya. Al-Ash‘ari became noted for his use of reason to support revelation and his intellectual defense of Sunnite religious beliefs.
Al-Ash‘ari began by supporting the rationalist methods and positions of the Mu‘tazila school, but about 912 abandoned that school in favor of Hanbalite interpretations of Sunnite belief. Indeed, al-Ash‘ari had been a student with the Mu‘tazila theologian al-Jubba’i, but came to disagree with al-Jubba’i on the question of God’s predetermination. Al-Ash‘ari broke with al-Jubba’i and started to produce a large number of texts where he fought the teachings of Mu‘tazilism, like in the ‘al-ibana ‘an ‘usuli d-diyan -- “Clarification on the origin of religion,” as well as unbiased scientific works on Muslim groups, like the maqalatu l-‘islamiyin -- “Islamic articles.”
Against the Mu‘tazilites, al-Ash‘ari held that the Qur’an is eternal and uncreated, … not created. Additionally, he argued that the anthropomorphic expressions in the Qur’an referring to Allah should not be interpreted as metaphors but accepted bi-la kayf (“without asking how”). Most importantly, al-Ash‘ari originated the concept of “acquisition” (kash) with which he opposed the Mu‘tazilite doctrine of human free will.
Al-Ash‘ari argued that Allah creates all the acts of humans but that they “acquire” these acts, thereby becoming responsible for them without creating them. This formula preserved divine determination and sole creatorhood, while making humans responsible and thereby liable to judgment.
Al-Ash‘ari is considered to be the founder of Islamic scholasticism, as he used dialectics in order to combat Mu‘tazilism, and his techniques and theories were accepted by the conservative learned of his time. Ash‘ari’s teaching became the dominant orientation among the Sunni schools.
Al-Ash'ari was born in Basra, Iraq, a descendant of the famous companion of Muhammad and arbitrator at Siffin for Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abu Musa al-Ashari. He spent the greater part of his life at Baghdad. Although belonging to an orthodox family, he became a pupil of the great Mutazalite teacher al-Jubba'i (d.915), and himself remained a Mutazalite until his fortieth year. In 912 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 over a hundred works, from which only four or five are known to be extant.
Al-Ash'ari was noted for his teachings on atomism, among the earliest Islamic philosophies, influenced by Greek and Hindu concepts of atoms of time and matter, and for al-Ash'ari the basis for propagating a deterministic view that Allah created every moment in time and every particle of matter. Thus cause and effect was an illusion. He nonetheless believed in free will, elaborating the thought of Dirar ibn Amr' and Abu Hanifa into a "dual agent" or "acquisition" account of free will.
While al-Ash'ari was opposed to the views of the Mu'tazili school for its over-emphasis on ijtihad (reason), he was also opposed to the views of certain orthodox schools such as the Zahiri, Mujassimite (anthropomorphist) and Muhaddithin (traditionalist) schools for their over-emphasis on taqlid (imitation) in his Istihsan al‑Khaud.
Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-Ash‘ari see Ash‘ari, Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-
Abū al-Hasan Alī ibn Ismā'īl al-Ash'arī see Ash‘ari, Abu ’l-Hasan 'Ali al-
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Ash‘ariyya
Ash‘ariyya (Ash‘ari) (Ash'arites). School of theology founded by al-Ash‘ari. It was attacked by the Hanbalites for the use of rational arguments and by the Maturidiyya for being too conservative. The Ash‘ariyya became the dominant school in the Arabic-speaking parts of the ‘Abbasid caliphate.
The teachings of al-Ash‘ari together with those of his principal disciples laid the basis for a doctrine that sought to occupy a middle ground between the rationalism of the Mu’tazilis and the traditionalist views of the Hanbalis. Against the Mu’tazilis, whose views al-Ash’ari himself had once espoused, the Ash‘ari school insisted, among other things, on the following: (1) the reality of God’s eternal attributes; (2) the createdness of the Qur’an; (3) the absolute sovereignty of God over human actions, and (4) the reality of the beatific vision. While thus accepting the substance of traditionalist doctrine, Ash‘aris, however, insisted on the legitimacy of reason as a tool for the defense of the truths of revelation. Since the Ash‘ari position was rejected by both Mu’tazilis and Hanbalis, what early Ash‘aris had hoped would form the basis for a reconciliation of the two polar positions ended by becoming a third school of thought. Although the position represented by al-Ash‘ari and his early defenders underwent some degree of modification in the subsequent period, repudiation of Mu‘tazili doctrine, attachment to tradition, and insistence on the value of reason as an apologetic device remained characteristic features of Ash‘ari thought during the medieval period. Among the leading Ash‘aris of the period are al-Baqillani (d. 1013), al-Juwaini (d. 1086), and al-Ghazali (d. 1111).
From Baghdad, the main center of the early school, Ash‘arism found its way to the major centers of the Near East, especially Khurasan, where it became a major intellectual force. Although Ash‘arism is not to be equated with the Shafi‘i school of law, it found its greatest acceptance in areas where Shafi‘i law was the dominant legal influence.
The Ashʿari theology (Arabic: al-asha`irah) is a school of early Muslim theology founded by the theologian Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (d. 324 AH / 936 AD). The disciples of the school are known as Ash'arites, and the school is also referred to as Ash'arite school. The Ash'arite school was instrumental in drastically changing the direction of Islamic theology, separating its development radically from that of theology in the Christian world. In contrast to the Mutazilite school of Islamic theology, the Ash'arite view was that comprehension of unique nature and characteristics of God were beyond human capability. Thus, while man had free will, he had no power to create anything. It was a taqlid ("faith" or "imitation") based view which did not assume that human reason could discern morality. This doctrine is now known as occasionalism. However, a critical spirit of inquiry was far from absent in the Ash'arite school. Rather, what they lacked, was a trust in reason itself, separate from a moral code, to decide what experiments or what knowledge to pursue.
Contrary to popular opinion, the Ash'arites (or "traditionalists") were not completely traditionalist and anti-rationalist, nor were the Mutazilites (or "rationalists") completely rationalist and anti-traditionalist, as the Ash'arites did depend on rationality and the Mutazilites did depend on tradition. Their goals were the same, to affirm the transcendence and unity of God, but their doctrines were different, with the Ash'arites supporting an Islamic occasionalist doctrine and the Mutazilites supporting an Islamic metaphysics influenced by Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. For Ash'arites, taqlid only applied to the Islamic tradition and not to any other, whereas for Mutazilites, taqlid applied equally to both the Islamic and Aristotelian-Neoplatonic traditions.
Factors affecting the spread of the school of thought include a drastic shift in historical initiative, foreshadowing the later loss of Muslim Spain and Columbus' landing in the Western Hemisphere - both in 1492. But the decisive influence was most likely that of the new Ottoman Empire, which found the Ash'arite views politically useful, and were to a degree taking the advantages of Islamic technologies, sciences, and openness for granted. For some centuries thereafter, as the Ottomans pushed forth into Europe, they were able to continue taking advantage of Muslim sciences and technologies only to begin losing those advantages gradually up until The Enlightenment when European innovation finally surpassed and eventually overwhelmed that of the Muslims.
The influence of the Ash'arites is still hotly debated today. It was commonly believed that the Asharites put an end to philosophy as such in the Muslim world, with the death of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) at the end of the 12th century. While philosophy did indeed decline in the western Islamic world (Al-Andalus and the Maghreb), research has shown that philosophy continued long after in the eastern Islamic world (Persia and India), where the Ibn Sinan (Avicennian), Illuminationist and Sufi schools predominated, until Islamic philosophy reached its zenith with Mulla Sadra's existentialist school of transcendent theosophy in the 17th century.
The 12th to 14th centuries marked the peak of innovation in Muslim civilization, and this continued through to the 16th century. During this period many remarkable achievements in science, engineering and social organization were made, while the ulema began to generate a fiqh based on taqlid ("imitation based on authority") rather than on the old ijtihad. Eventually, however, modern historians think that lack of improvements in basic processes and confusion with theology and law degraded scientific methods. The rigorous means by which the Ash'arites had reached their conclusions were largely forgotten by Muslims before the Renaissance, due in large part to the success of their effort to subordinate inquiry to a prior ethics - and assume ignorance was the norm for humankind.
Modern commentators blame or laud Ash'arites for curtailing much of the Islamic world's innovation in sciences and technology, then leading the world. This innovation was not in general revived in the West until the Renaissance, and emergence of scientific method - which was based on traditional Islamic methods of ijtihad and isnad (backing or scientific citation). The Ash'arites did not reject these, amongst the ulema or learned, but they stifled these in the mosque and discouraged their application by the lay public.
The Ash'arites may have succeeded in laying the groundwork for a stable empire, and for subordinating philosophy as a process to fixed notions of ethics derived directly from Islam - perhaps this even improved the quality of life of average citizens. But it seems the historical impact was to yield the scientific and technological initiative of Western civilization to Christians in Europe.
Ash‘ari see Ash‘ariyya
Ash'arites see Ash‘ariyya
Ash‘ariyya (Ash‘ari) (Ash'arites). School of theology founded by al-Ash‘ari. It was attacked by the Hanbalites for the use of rational arguments and by the Maturidiyya for being too conservative. The Ash‘ariyya became the dominant school in the Arabic-speaking parts of the ‘Abbasid caliphate.
The teachings of al-Ash‘ari together with those of his principal disciples laid the basis for a doctrine that sought to occupy a middle ground between the rationalism of the Mu’tazilis and the traditionalist views of the Hanbalis. Against the Mu’tazilis, whose views al-Ash’ari himself had once espoused, the Ash‘ari school insisted, among other things, on the following: (1) the reality of God’s eternal attributes; (2) the createdness of the Qur’an; (3) the absolute sovereignty of God over human actions, and (4) the reality of the beatific vision. While thus accepting the substance of traditionalist doctrine, Ash‘aris, however, insisted on the legitimacy of reason as a tool for the defense of the truths of revelation. Since the Ash‘ari position was rejected by both Mu’tazilis and Hanbalis, what early Ash‘aris had hoped would form the basis for a reconciliation of the two polar positions ended by becoming a third school of thought. Although the position represented by al-Ash‘ari and his early defenders underwent some degree of modification in the subsequent period, repudiation of Mu‘tazili doctrine, attachment to tradition, and insistence on the value of reason as an apologetic device remained characteristic features of Ash‘ari thought during the medieval period. Among the leading Ash‘aris of the period are al-Baqillani (d. 1013), al-Juwaini (d. 1086), and al-Ghazali (d. 1111).
From Baghdad, the main center of the early school, Ash‘arism found its way to the major centers of the Near East, especially Khurasan, where it became a major intellectual force. Although Ash‘arism is not to be equated with the Shafi‘i school of law, it found its greatest acceptance in areas where Shafi‘i law was the dominant legal influence.
The Ashʿari theology (Arabic: al-asha`irah) is a school of early Muslim theology founded by the theologian Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (d. 324 AH / 936 AD). The disciples of the school are known as Ash'arites, and the school is also referred to as Ash'arite school. The Ash'arite school was instrumental in drastically changing the direction of Islamic theology, separating its development radically from that of theology in the Christian world. In contrast to the Mutazilite school of Islamic theology, the Ash'arite view was that comprehension of unique nature and characteristics of God were beyond human capability. Thus, while man had free will, he had no power to create anything. It was a taqlid ("faith" or "imitation") based view which did not assume that human reason could discern morality. This doctrine is now known as occasionalism. However, a critical spirit of inquiry was far from absent in the Ash'arite school. Rather, what they lacked, was a trust in reason itself, separate from a moral code, to decide what experiments or what knowledge to pursue.
Contrary to popular opinion, the Ash'arites (or "traditionalists") were not completely traditionalist and anti-rationalist, nor were the Mutazilites (or "rationalists") completely rationalist and anti-traditionalist, as the Ash'arites did depend on rationality and the Mutazilites did depend on tradition. Their goals were the same, to affirm the transcendence and unity of God, but their doctrines were different, with the Ash'arites supporting an Islamic occasionalist doctrine and the Mutazilites supporting an Islamic metaphysics influenced by Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism. For Ash'arites, taqlid only applied to the Islamic tradition and not to any other, whereas for Mutazilites, taqlid applied equally to both the Islamic and Aristotelian-Neoplatonic traditions.
Factors affecting the spread of the school of thought include a drastic shift in historical initiative, foreshadowing the later loss of Muslim Spain and Columbus' landing in the Western Hemisphere - both in 1492. But the decisive influence was most likely that of the new Ottoman Empire, which found the Ash'arite views politically useful, and were to a degree taking the advantages of Islamic technologies, sciences, and openness for granted. For some centuries thereafter, as the Ottomans pushed forth into Europe, they were able to continue taking advantage of Muslim sciences and technologies only to begin losing those advantages gradually up until The Enlightenment when European innovation finally surpassed and eventually overwhelmed that of the Muslims.
The influence of the Ash'arites is still hotly debated today. It was commonly believed that the Asharites put an end to philosophy as such in the Muslim world, with the death of Ibn Rushd (Averroes) at the end of the 12th century. While philosophy did indeed decline in the western Islamic world (Al-Andalus and the Maghreb), research has shown that philosophy continued long after in the eastern Islamic world (Persia and India), where the Ibn Sinan (Avicennian), Illuminationist and Sufi schools predominated, until Islamic philosophy reached its zenith with Mulla Sadra's existentialist school of transcendent theosophy in the 17th century.
The 12th to 14th centuries marked the peak of innovation in Muslim civilization, and this continued through to the 16th century. During this period many remarkable achievements in science, engineering and social organization were made, while the ulema began to generate a fiqh based on taqlid ("imitation based on authority") rather than on the old ijtihad. Eventually, however, modern historians think that lack of improvements in basic processes and confusion with theology and law degraded scientific methods. The rigorous means by which the Ash'arites had reached their conclusions were largely forgotten by Muslims before the Renaissance, due in large part to the success of their effort to subordinate inquiry to a prior ethics - and assume ignorance was the norm for humankind.
Modern commentators blame or laud Ash'arites for curtailing much of the Islamic world's innovation in sciences and technology, then leading the world. This innovation was not in general revived in the West until the Renaissance, and emergence of scientific method - which was based on traditional Islamic methods of ijtihad and isnad (backing or scientific citation). The Ash'arites did not reject these, amongst the ulema or learned, but they stifled these in the mosque and discouraged their application by the lay public.
The Ash'arites may have succeeded in laying the groundwork for a stable empire, and for subordinating philosophy as a process to fixed notions of ethics derived directly from Islam - perhaps this even improved the quality of life of average citizens. But it seems the historical impact was to yield the scientific and technological initiative of Western civilization to Christians in Europe.
Ash‘ari see Ash‘ariyya
Ash'arites see Ash‘ariyya
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