The story of Islamic theology begins with the Quran itself. Countless verses referring to Monotheism, God’s Attributes and Acts. God’s omnipotence, His volition and All-encompassing knowledge. God is One, the Quran teaches, without partner and precedent. The Quran explains morality offering clear guidelines of how one is to live. How can this life continue without destruction? Who can teach God’s moral law? From God’s wisdom, He sends Prophets and Messengers. They taught this monotheistic doctrine, how to live, and also metaphysical concepts; such as Angels, Heaven, Hell, the Day of Judgment, et cetera. Therefore, theology was the first message, except that it was simplistic.
This simplicity was not able to remain for too long as the diaspora of Muslims spilt into non Arab territories, especially Persia and beyond into Transylvania. The newly converted Muslims were unlike the more simple and Bedouin Arabs. The Abbasid period, in particular, beheld an intellectual boom, with the benefactors being the royals themselves. The eighth-century witnessed the great Baghdad Library of Harun al-Rashid turning into a leading Academy under al-Mamun. Thus, the Abode of Wisdom (Dar al-Hikmah) become the birthplace of what is termed, in the West, as the Golden Age of Islam.
This intellectual inquisition was not without a heavy price. It brought an emergence of questions, sectarianism and even violence. Orthodoxy became a thing clouded by options and fierce interlocking of ideas. As a result, various philosophical schools emerged. The domination, intellectually and politically, of rationalist theology—most fiercely displayed by the Mutazilites—was not a thing that could be any longer ignored. This vivid reality birthed a revolution of ideas that would change the course of Islamic intellectualism.
Rationalist theologians emerged—most notably—in the forms of Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari and Abu Mansur al-Maturidi who allowed a place for rationalism within orthodox boundaries. They facilitated a method which afforded the intellect its rightful epistemic place all the while not compromising revelation. This dawn of rationalist theology became formative Sunni orthodoxy; commonly called Asharite/Maturidite Kalam. The Maturidite school of Kalam albeit on par with its Asharite counterpart attracted less attention over the years due to certain factors within the formative period. Although, it was geographically the largest theological school due to the Ottoman and Mughal empires yet it was smaller in terms of academic production.
The Ash’arite school, however, saw a sea of works and scholars emerging that developed the school into a systematic and robust form of rational theology. With the founding father being Al-Ash’ari, it was his students and the students of his students that rendered Ash’arite thought into a systematic school. From these students, two foremost thinkers were Al-Baqillani and Abdal Qahir al-Baghdadi. As Oliver Leaman argues that this systematisation probably reached its completion with the Kitab al-Irshad of Al-Juwayni. The system was used and developed in different contexts and situations by the later theologians such as Al-Shahrastani, Al-Razi, Al-Nasafi and Al-Iji.
One could not skip this section without a special mention of Al-Ghazali who did indeed defend the Ash’arite school—by challenging the theories of Muslim peripatetic philosophers such as Al-Farabi and Avicenna (Ibn Sina)—but is deemed too original of a thinker to not have his own independent mention. His infusion of Kalam into Usul al-Fiqh and Sufism into Kalam was a unique blend without real precedent and quite possibly inspired later mystical philosophers such as al-Suharwardi and Ibn ‘Arabi.
Intellectual thinkers such as those aforementioned allowed the orthodox rationalist theology to dominate without much competition. There were occasions in which certain literalist scholars attempted to revive a more puritan non-kalamic form of Islamic theology with a return to the early way of traditionalist scholars. Thinkers such as Ibn Hazm and Ibn Taymiyya are stand out examples. Despite having produced great works their ideas were relatively marginalised throughout Muslim history except perhaps —for more political reasons—at the beginning of the twentieth century with the formulation of Saudi Arabia. Thus, aside from political desires the literalist and puritan movement achieved little success intellectually allowing the Asharite and Maturidite schools to remain mainstream.
Coming back now to the period after Al-Ghazali and Al-Razi there was a flood of textbooks (mutun) on creed along with glosses, commentaries and super commentaries. Certain works became popular amongst the scholars and were used as manuals of teaching within the seminaries around the world. Works such Al-Taftazani’s commentary on al-Nasafi’s creed. Al-Sharif al-Jurjani’s commentary on Al-Iji’s work kitab al-mawaqif. Beyond these, many other works become celebrated within the Muslim world and have been taught, memorised and adored until this very day such as the works of Al-Sanusi, Al-Laqqani and Ibn Humam to mention only a few.
It is a misconception indeed that the Asharite and Maturidite schools retarded Muslim intellectual and philosophical progression by stifling rationalism and promoting pure fundamentalism. This is far from reality. In truth, the rational tradition was infused into Islamic doctrinal discussion to the point that they become indistinguishable. Al-Taftazani mentions that had it not been for Eschatology it would have been difficult to distinguish the two subjects i.e. theology and philosophy. It may be that academic endeavour staggered over the past five hundred years in parts of the Muslim world but this has zero to do with the system of Islamic theology. Had this been the case then a flourishing kalam tradition would not have continued until this day in the Ottoman lands with giant thinkers such as Ibn Baha al-Din, Ibn Kamal Pasha, Al-Kalambawi and Mustafa Sabri Effendi to name only a few.
Today, there is a great need to focus study on this tradition and hold firm to its core principles. And, within this paradigm and based on its foundations to build new arguments for contemporary challenges. From the major discussions of Philosophy today are epistemology and moral philosophy. The tradition of kalam has clear guidance on these topics in great detail. Morality, for example, today is of major concern. Living in a liberal society with conservative Islamic morality is quite a challenge. How would then as a Muslim one answer questions regarding abortion, euthanasia, gender, sexuality, et cetera? For surely, the intellectual tradition of Islam has laid out the blueprint and bequeathed the tools.
Shams Tameez | 18 Ramadan 1441
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