Transcript Original Sunni/Ahl al

Islamic
Theology
and
Philosophy
Major Tensions in Islamic Theology
•Khawd vs. Speculation: bila kayf
•Reason vs. Revelation
Do we believe in fallible hadith for our
doctrine?
Is God really above us?
•Literal vs. Figurative Interpretation
What is God’s ‘hand’ like?
•Do we protect God’s power or His
justice? Free Will vs. Pre-Destination…
The Flow of Islamic
Theological History
950 CE on…
800 CE
Rationalist/Mu’tazilite
•God is rational god
•Reason tells us what is
possible and impossible in
belief
•Hadith not reliable enough
for doctrine
Adios…except
for Zaydis and
Imamis
The Ash’ari Compromise:
•Figurative interpretation of God’s
attributes
•Speculation allowed to prevent
heretical beliefs
•Mu’tazilite tools used to achieve
Sunni Literalist results
Sunni
Literalists
Literalist/Ahl al-Hadith:
•O.g. ahl al-sunna
•No speculation, no rational tools
•No speculation
•But heretical beliefs not the
correct literal readings!
•Follow hadith in
doctrine
Sunnis
Major Issues of Contention
Free Will vs. Predestination: political origins?
• Quran supports both…
•
•
•
•
•
“God does not change the condition of a people until
they change themselves”
Anfal 42
Mu’tazilite Position: man must have free
will because it would not be just for God
to judge people for what they were
predestined to do.
Original Sunni Position: predestinarian…
but don’t ask!
Sunni Position/Ash’ari Compromise: God
creates man’s actions, but we ‘acquire’
them and that’s what we’re judged for
Major Issues of Contention 2
The Fate of the Grave Sinner: political?
• Kharijite: grave sinner is an unbeliever
• Mu’tazilite Position: if God says that a
punishment leads to hellfire, then even
a Muslim is condemned to hellfire
• Sunni Position: a grave sinner is still a
Muslim, and if God wishes He can
forgive him (or not)
Bigger question: what is the nature of
faith? Belief? Actions? Or Both?
Nature of Faith
• Murji’ite: “The Hopers” = faith is a
knowledge and belief, actions can’t affect
it…. Supposedly held by Abu Hanifa
• Kharijites: faith is both belief in the
heart (based on knowledge of course) and
deeds & deeds indicate it 100%!
• Sunnis: faith is “belief in the heart, a
statement by the tongue and acting on the
pillars”  denying an essential duty is
disbelief!
Major Issues of Contention 3
God’s Attributes: how does He speak?
Does He have hands?
• Mu’tazilite Position: God’s speech is
created (i.e., the Quran)
• Original Sunni/Ahl al-Hadith Position:
God’s hands are hands, don’t ask! God
is above us, God descends to the
lowest heavens at night
• Sunni/Ash’ari position: God’s hands are
figurative for ‘power’, to assign a
direction to God is disbelief.
Major Issue of Contention 4
Can Hadith Create Dogma?
• Mahdi: from hadith…
• Return of Jesus: from hadith…
• Punishment of the Grave: from hadith
Mu’tazilite Position: these are not
substantiated!
Original Sunni/Ahl al-Hadith Position:
hadith are sufficient if authenticated
Sunni/Ash’ari Position: these beliefs are
100% because community has agreed
on them!
Islamic Philosophy
• Derived from Classical Greek and
Hellenistic Logic and Philosophy
– Aristotle (d. 322 BCE): logic,
categorization of proofs, God as First
Cause
– Plotinus (d. 270 CE): creation as a series
of 3 concentric emanations (the last is
material world) a from the One, Perfect,
God: an attribute-less ‘Will’
• Reason is the link connecting us with the
closest of the spheres: the Active Intellect
• Through proper understanding one can
achieve moments of ecstatic union with the
One
Islamic Adoption and
Synthesis
• Al-Kindi (d. 866): first Arab/Muslim
philosopher; philosophy as “the search for
truth” (talab al-haqq)
• Al-Farabi (d. 950): elaborates Islamic NeoPlatonism; 10 spheres corresponding to 10
celestial bodies; last before earth the Active
Intellect (reason and prophets alone access
it)
• Ibn Sina/Avicenna (d. 1037): fully developed
Islamic neo-Platonism
• Ibn Rushd/Averroes (d. 1198):represents full
synthesis of Aristotelian thought and Islam

Islamic Aristotelian Thought
•
•
•
Highly debated!
Logic is a “tool of investigation” and
lingua franca of thought: theology,
law, language
Levels of Proofs/Audiences:
Aristotle’s Organon (70AD works of Aristotle all edited and
combined by Andronicus of Rhodes )
1. Demonstration: yields certainty
2. Dialectic Argument: for scholars, yields
probability only
3. Rhetoric: for the masses
4. Poetry: also for the masses
Friday Question
Do you notice any thematic or
similarities (or similar trends) between
the Islamic legal and theological
traditions?
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“God takes your charity with His hand…”
More than one scholar has said that this hadith
and other narrations like it dealing with God’s
attributes and the Lord most high’s descending
every night to the lowest heavens, that these
narrations have been established [as reliable]
and are to be believed. They say that one should
not fall into error concerning them and say ‘How
could this be?’ It has been reported that Malik b.
Anas, Sufyan b. ‘Uyayna and ‘Abdallah b. alMubarak all said about such hadiths, “Take them
as is without asking ‘How’.” Such is the stance of
the scholars from the People of the Sunna and
the Early Community (Ahl al-Sunna wa alJama’a).” – al-Tirmidhi (d. 892)
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Surat al-Anfal 42
“When you were on the nearer side (of the
valley) and they were on the farthest side, while
the caravan was in a lower place than you; and if
you had mutually made an appointment, you
would certainly have broken away from the
appointment, but-- in order that Allah might
bring about a matter which was to be done, that
he who would perish might perish by clear proof,
and he who would live might live by clear proof;
and most surely Allah is Hearing, Knowing.”
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