Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari

"al-Ash'ari" redirects here. For other uses, see Ash'ari (disambiguation).
Imam
Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari
أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن ٱلْأَشْعَرِيّ
Title
  • Shaykh al-Islam ('Shaykh of Islam')
  • Imam al-Mutakallimun ('Imam of the Scholastic Theologians')
  • Imam Ahl al-Sunna wa-l-Jama'a ('Imam of the People of the Prophetic Way and Community')
Personal
Born874 CE (260 AH)
Basra, Abbasid Caliphate
Died936 CE (324 AH; aged 62–63)
Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic Golden Age (Abbasid era)
RegionAbbasid Caliphate
DenominationSunni
SchoolShafi'i
Main interest(s)
Notable idea(s)Ash'arism
Notable work(s)
Arabic name
Personal
(Ism)		ʿAlī
عَلِيّ
Patronymic
(Nasab)		Ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Isḥāq
ٱبْن إِسْمَاعِيل بْن إِسْحَاق
Teknonymic
(Kunya)		Abū al-Ḥasan
أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن
Toponymic
(Nisba)		Al-Ashʿarī
ٱلْأَشْعَرِيّ
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced
  • All Ash'aris

Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari[a] (Arabic: أَبُو ٱلْحَسَن ٱلْأَشْعَرِيّ, romanized: Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī; 874–936 CE) was a Sunni Muslim scholar, jurist of the Shafi'i school, exegete, reformer, and scholastic theologian known for being the eponymous founder of the Ash'ari school of Islamic theology.[1][2][3][4][5]

Al-Ash'ari was notable for taking an intermediary position between the two diametrically opposed schools of Islamic theology prevalent at the time: Atharism and Mu'tazilism.[1][2][4] He primarily opposed the Mu'tazili theologians who advocated the use of rationalism in theological debate and believed the Quran was created, as opposed to uncreated.[1][4] On the other hand, the Hanbalis and traditionists were opposed to the use of philosophy or speculative theology, and condemned any theological debate altogether.[1][4][6]

Al-Ash'ari established a middle way between the doctrines of the aforementioned schools, based both on reliance on the sacred scriptures of Islam and theological rationalism concerning free will and attributes of God.[1][2][4][7] His school eventually became the predominant school of theological thought within Sunni Islam.[3][4][8][9][10] By contrast, Shia Muslims do not accept his theological beliefs, as his works also involved refuting Shia Islam.

  1. ^ a b c d e f Nasr, Seyyed Hossein (2006). "Part 3: Islamic Philosophy in History – Dimensions of the Islamic Intellectual Tradition: Kalām, Philosophy, and Spirituality". Islamic Philosophy from Its Origin to the Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. pp. 124–126. ISBN 9780791468005. LCCN 2005023943.
  2. ^ a b c d Frank, Richard M. (2020) [2007]. "Al-Ashʿarī's conception of the nature and role of speculative reasoning in theology". In Frank, Richard M.; Gutas, Dimitri (eds.). Early Islamic Theology: The Muʿtazilites and al-Ashʿarī – Texts and Studies on the Development and History of Kalām, Vol. II (1st ed.). London and New York: Routledge. pp. 136–154. doi:10.4324/9781003110385_8. ISBN 9780860789789. LCCN 2006935669.
  3. ^ a b Javad Anvari, Mohammad (2015). "al-Ashʿarī". In Madelung, Wilferd; Daftary, Farhad (eds.). Encyclopaedia Islamica. Translated by Melvin-Koushki, Matthew. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. doi:10.1163/1875-9831_isla_COM_0300. ISSN 1875-9823.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Thiele, Jan (2016) [2014]. "Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Between Cordoba and Nīsābūr: The Emergence and Consolidation of Ashʿarism (Fourth–Fifth/Tenth–Eleventh Century)". In Schmidtke, Sabine (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 225–241. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.45. ISBN 9780199696703. LCCN 2016935488.
  5. ^ Hoover, John (2020). "Early Mamlūk Ashʿarism against Ibn Taymiyya on the Nonliteral Reinterpretation (taʾwīl) of God's Attributes". In Shihadeh, Ayman; Thiele, Jan (eds.). Philosophical Theology in Islam: Later Ashʿarism East and West. Islamicate Intellectual History. Vol. 5. Leiden and Boston: Brill Publishers. pp. 195–230. doi:10.1163/9789004426610_009. ISBN 978-90-04-42661-0. ISSN 2212-8662. LCCN 2020008682.
  6. ^ Halverson, Jeffry R. (2010). "The Doctrines of Sunni Theology". Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Sunnism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 12–31. doi:10.1057/9780230106581_2. ISBN 978-0-230-10658-1. Retrieved 21 January 2022.
  7. ^ Frank, Richard M. (January–March 1989). "Knowledge and Taqlîd: The Foundations of Religious Belief in Classical Ashʿarism". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 109 (1). American Oriental Society: 37–62. doi:10.2307/604336. ISSN 0003-0279. LCCN 12032032.
  8. ^ Henderson, John B. (1998). "The Making of Orthodoxies". The Construction of Orthodoxy and Heresy: Neo-Confucian, Islamic, Jewish, and Early Christian Patterns. Albany, New York: SUNY Press. pp. 55–58. ISBN 978-0-7914-3760-5.
  9. ^ Abdullah Saeed Islamic Thought: An Introduction Routledge 2006 ISBN 978-1-134-22564-4 chapter 5
  10. ^ Juan Eduardo Campo Encyclopedia of Islam New York, NY 2009 ISBN 978-1-438-12696-8 page 66


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