Abu Mansur al-Maturidi

Imam Abu Mansur al-MaturidiTemplate:Efn (Template:Langx; 853–944) was a Hanafi jurist and theologian who is the eponym of the Maturidi school of kalam in Sunnism. He got his Template:Transliteration from Māturīd, a district in Samarkand. His works include Template:Transliteration, a classic exegesis of the Qur'an, and Template:Transliteration.

His doctrinal school remains amongst the three main schools of theology alongside Ash'arism and Atharism.

Name

Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī's epithet or nisba refers to Māturīd or Māturīt, a locality in Samarkand (today Uzbekistan).<ref name="ReferenceA"/> His full name was Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd and he adopted the Template:Transliteration al-Māturīdī and al-Ḥanafī.<ref name="ReferenceA2" /> he is also known by the titles Shaykh al-Islam ('Shaykh of Islam'), Imam al-Huda ('Imam of Guidance'), and Imam Ahl al-Sunna wa-l-Jama'a ('Imam of the People of the Prophetic Way and Community').

Teachers

He studied under his teachers, Muhammad bin Muqatil al-Razi (d. 248 H/ 662 CE), Abu Nasr al-Ayadi "al-Faqih al-Samarqandi" (d. 260 H?), Nusayr bin Yahya al-Balkhi (d. 268 H/ 881 CE), and Abu Bakr al-Juzjani (d. 250 H?).<ref name="principles">Akimkhanov, Askar Bolatbekovich, et al. "Principles of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi, Central Asian Islamic theologian preoccupied with the question of the relation between the Iman/credo and the action in Islam." European Journal of Science and Theology 12.6 (2016): 165-176.</ref><ref name="deathdates">Çandur, Yasemin. Ebû Bekir Ahmed b. İshak el-Cûzcânî ve Cûzcâniyye. MS thesis. Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2015. p.6</ref><ref>Wan Ali, Wan Zailan Kamaruddin. "Aliran al-Maturidi dan al-Maturidiyyah dalam dunia Islam." Jurnal Usuluddin 8.1 (1998): 81-96.</ref><ref name="Gibril Fouad Haddad 2015 141">Template:Cite book</ref> He narrated all of Abu Hanifa's books such as Kitab al-Alim wa Mut'alim and Al-Wasiyya from his teachers in authentic chains which Al-Bazdawi mentions in his book Usul al-Deen.

His chains to Abu Hanifa are given as follows:<ref>Aisyah, Dollah. Kaedah pentakwilan Al-Qur'an: Kajian perbandingan antara Al-Maturidi (M: 944) dan Al-Tabari (M: 923)/Aisyah binti Dollah@ Abdullah. Diss. University of Malaya, 2015. p.75 - transmission diagrams A, B and C correspond to 1, 2 and 3 below.</ref><ref>Çandur, Yasemin. Ebû Bekir Ahmed b. İshak el-Cûzcânî ve Cûzcâniyye. MS thesis. Uludağ Üniversitesi, 2015. pp. 22-25 - the diagram on page 22 corresponds with 4 below, diagrams on pages 24 and 25 correspond to 2, 3 below respectively. The chain on page 23 was weakened by the researcher so has not been quoted.</ref>

1. He took from Muhammad bin Muqatil al-Razi (d. 248 H), from Muhammad al-Shaybani (d. 189 H), from Abu Hanifa (d. 150 H).
2. He took from Abu Nasr al-Ayadi (d. 260 H?),<ref name="deathdates"/> Nusayr al-Balkhi (d. 268 H) and Abu Bakr al-Juzjani (d. 250 H?),<ref name="deathdates"/> who all took from Abu Sulayman al-Juzjani (d. 200 H?),<ref name="deathdates"/> who took from both Muhammad al-Shaybani and Abu Yusuf (d. 182 H), who both took from Abu Hanifa.
3. He took from Muhammad bin Muqatil al-Razi and Nusayr al-Balkhi, who additionally both took from Abu Muti al-Hakam al-Balkhi (d. 199 H) and Abu Muqatil Hafs al-Samarqandi (d. 208 H), who both took from Abu Hanifa.
4. He took from Abu Nasr al-Ayadi, who took from Abu Ahmad bin Ishaq al-Juzjani (died mid-third century), who took directly from Muhammad al-Shaybani, who took from Abu Hanifa.

Students

Among his students: Ali bin Said Abu al-Hasan al-Rustughfani, Abu Muhammad Abdal-Karim bin Musa bin Isa al-Bazdawi, and Abu al-Qasim al-Hakim al-Samarqandi.<ref name="Gibril Fouad Haddad 2015 141"/>

Life

Al‑Maturidi was born at Maturid, a village or quarter in the neighbourhood of Samarkand. According to one biography he is known for being a descendant of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, Relatively little is known about the life of Maturidi, as the sources available "do not read as biographies, but rather as lists of works that have been enlarged upon by brief statements on his personage and a few words of praise."<ref name="Ulrich Rudolph 2015 p. 125">Ulrich Rudolph, Al-Māturīdī and the Development of Sunnī Theology in Samarqand, trans. Rodrigo Adem (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2015), p. 125</ref> What is evident, however, is that the theologian lived the life of a pure scholar, as "nothing indicates that he held any public office, nor that he possessed more disciples, popularity, or association with the Sāmānid court of Bukhārā than anyone else."<ref name="Ulrich Rudolph 2015 p. 125"/> It is accepted, moreover, that Maturidi had two principal teachers, namely Abū Bakr al-Jūzjānī and Abū Naṣr Aḥmad b. al-ʿAbbās al-ʿIyāḍī (d. ca. 874–892), both of whom played significant roles in the shaping of Maturidi's theological views.<ref name="Ulrich Rudolph 2015 p. 125"/> Maturidi is said to have lived the life of an ascetic (zāhid),<ref name="Ulrich Rudolph 2015 p. 131">Ulrich Rudolph, Al-Māturīdī and the Development of Sunnī Theology in Samarqand, trans. Rodrigo Adem (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2015), p. 131</ref> and various sources attribute numerous miracles (karāmāt) to him.<ref name="Ulrich Rudolph 2015 p. 131"/> Although he is not usually considered a mystic, it is nevertheless very possible that Maturidi had some interaction with the Sufis of his area, as "Hanafite theology in the region could not always be sharply separated from mystical tendencies,"<ref name="Ulrich Rudolph 2015 p. 131"/> and many of the most important Hanafi jurists of the area were also Sufi mystics.<ref name="Ulrich Rudolph 2015 p. 131"/>

Theology

Template:Maturidism Maturidi defined faith (īmān) as taṣdīḳ bi ’l-ḳalb or "inner assent, expressed by verbal confession (ịḳrār bi ’l-lisān)."<ref name="ReferenceB">Madelung, W., “al-Māturīdī”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs.</ref> According to Maturidi, moreover, Islamic actions (practices or worship) (aʿmāl) are not a part of faith.<ref name="ReferenceB"/> Additionally, Maturidi held that "faith cannot decrease nor increase in substance, though it may be said to increase through renewal and repetition."<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

Maturidi supported using allegorical interpretation with respect to the anthropomorphic expressions in the Quran, though he rejected many of the interpretations the Mutazilites would reach using this method.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> In other instances, Maturidi espoused using the traditionalist bilā kayf method of reading scripture, which insisted on "unquestioning acceptance of the revealed text."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Maturidi further refuted the Mutazilites in his defense of the Attributes of God "as real and eternally subsisting" in the Essence of God (ḳāʾima bi ’l-d̲h̲āt).<ref name="ReferenceA"/> His chief theological divergence from Ashʿarī was that he held the attributes of essence and action to be "equally eternal and subsistent in the Divine Essence."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Thus, "he insisted that the expressions 'God is eternally the Creator' and 'God has been creating from eternity (lam yazal k̲h̲āliḳan)' are equally valid, even though the created world is temporal."<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Furthermore, Maturidi staunchly defended the notion of non-theophanic vision of God (ruʾya) against the Mutazilites, and "consistently rejected the possibility of idrāk, which he understood as grasping, of God by the eyes."<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Contrary to popular assumption, Al-Maturidi was not a student of Al-Ash'ari. The historian al-Bayadi (d. 1078 H) emphasised this saying, "Maturidi is not Ash'ari's follower, as many people would tend to think. He had upheld Sunni Islam long before Ashari, he was a scholar to thoroughly explain and systematically develop Abu Hanifa's and his followers' school".<ref name="principles"/><ref>İskenderoğlu, Muammer. "Al-Māturīdī and the Development of Sunnī Theology in Samarqand." (2016): 336-338.</ref>

Work

When Maturidi was growing up there was an emerging reaction<ref>Williams, J. A. (1994). The word of Islam. London: Thames and Hudson. p. 145.</ref> against some sects, notably Mu'tazilis, Qarmati, and Shi'a. Maturidi, with other two preeminent scholars,<ref>Ali, A. (1963). Maturidism. In Sharif, p. 260. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.</ref> wrote especially on the creed of Islam, the other two being Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari in Iraq, and Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tahawi in Egypt.<ref>Ali, A. (1963). Maturidism. In Sharif, p. 259. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.</ref>

While Al-Ash'ari were Sunni together with Maturidi, he constructed his own theology taking from Abu Hanifa's school and systematized it which differed from his contemporary imam al-Tahawi who affirmed the beliefs of Abu Hanifa. Regardless, both were Hhanafi in their creed but with different approaches. Gimaret argued that Al-Ash'ari enunciated that God creates the individual's power (qudra), will, and the actual act,<ref>Gimaret, D. (1980). The´ories de L’Acte Humain en The´ologie Musulmane. Paris: J. Vrin.</ref> which according to Hye, gives way to a fatalist school of theology, which was later put in a consolidated form by Al Ghazali.<ref>Hye, M. A. (1963). Ash'arism. In Sharif, p. 226. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.</ref> According to Encyclopædia Britannica however, Al-Ashari held the doctrine of Kasb as an explanation for how free will and predestination can be reconciled.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> Maturidi, followed in Abu Hanifa's footsteps, and presented the "notion that God was the creator of man's acts, although man possessed his own capacity and will to act."<ref>Shah, M. (2006). Later Developments. In Meri, J. W. (Ed.), Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia, (Vol. 1), (p. 640). New York:Routledge.</ref> Maturidi and Al-Ash'ari also separated from each other in the issue of the attributes of God,<ref>Lucas, S. C.(2006). Sunni Theological Schools. In Meri, J. W. (Ed.),Medieval Islamic civilization: an encyclopedia, (Vol. 1), (p. 809). New York:Routledge.</ref> as well as some other minor issues.

Later, with the impact of Turkic society states such as Great Seljuq Empire<ref>Hughes, A. (2004). Ash'arites, Ash'aria. In Martin, R. C. et al. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, (Vol. 1), (pp. 83–84). New York: Macmillan Reference USA</ref> and Ottoman Empire,<ref>DeWeese, D. (2004). Central Asian Culture and Islam. In Martin, R. C. et al. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World, (Vol. 1), (p. 139). New York: Macmillan Reference USA</ref> Hanafi-Maturidi school spread to greater areas where the Hanafi school of law is prevalent, such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, South Asia, Balkan, Russia, China, Caucasus and Turkey.

Maturidi had immense knowledge of dualist beliefs (Sanawiyya) and of other old Persian religions. His Kitāb al-Tawḥīd in this way has become a primary source for modern researchers with its rich materials about Iranian Manicheanism (Mâniyya), a group of Brahmans (Barähima), and some controversial personalities such as Ibn al-Rawandi, Abu Isa al-Warraq, and Muhammad b. Shabib.<ref>See G. Vajda, "Le Témoignage d'al-Maturidi sur la doctrine des manichéens, des daysanites et des rnarcionites", Arabica, 13 (1966), pp. 1–38; Guy Mannot, "Matoridi et le manichéisme", Melanges de l'Institut Dominicain d'Etudes Orientales de Caire, 13 (1977), pp. 39–66; Sarah Stroumsa, "The Barahima in Early Kalam", Jarusalem Studies In Arable and Islam, 6 (1985), pp. 229–241; Josef van Ess, "al-Farabi and Ibn al-Rewandi", Hamdard Islamicus, 3/4 (Winter 1980), pp. 3–15; J. Meric Pessagno, "The Reconstruction of the Thought of Muhammad Ibn Shabib", Journal of the American Oriental Society, 104/3 (1984), pp. 445–453.</ref><ref>The Authenticity of the Manuscript of Maturidi's Kitäb al-Tawhid, by M. Sait Özervarli, 1997. (Retrieved on: 23 December 2008)</ref>

Legacy and veneration

His school became the dominant Sunni school of Islamic theology<ref name="ReferenceA" /><ref name="Rudolph 2016">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Alpyagil 2016">Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref><ref name="Rudolph 2015">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Henderson 1998">Template:Cite book</ref> in Central Asia,<ref name="ReferenceA" /> and later enjoyed a preeminent status as the theological school of choice for both the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire.<ref name="ReferenceA" />

Al-Maturidi was known as Shaykh al-Islām and Imām al-Hudā ("Leader of Right Guidance").<ref name="ReferenceA" /> He was one of the two foremost Imams of the Sunni Islam in his time, along with Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī in matters of theological inquiry.<ref name="Gibril Fouad Haddad 2015 141" /> In contrast al-Ashʿarī, who was a Shāfiʿī jurist, al-Māturīdī adhered to the eponymous school of jurisprudence founded by Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān, and to his creed (ʿaqīdah) as transmitted and elaborated by the Ḥanafī Muslim theologians of Balkh and Transoxania.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> It was this theological doctrine which al-Māturīdī codified, systematized, and used to refute not only the opinions of the Muʿtazilites, the Karramites, and other heterodox groups, but also non-Islamic theologies such as those of Chalcedonian Christianity, Miaphysitism, Manichaeanism, Marcionism, and Bardaisanism.<ref>G. Vajda, Le témoignage d’al-Māturīdī sur la doctrine des Manichéens, des Daysanites et des Marcionites, in Arabica, xii [1966], 1–38, 113–28</ref>

Although there was in the medieval period "a tendency to suppress Maturidi's name and to put Ashʿarī forward as the champion of Islam against all heretics,"<ref>Macdonald, D. B., “Māturīdī”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913–1936), Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, T.W. Arnold, R. Basset, R. Hartmann.</ref> except in Transoxiana, Maturidism gradually "came to be widely recognised as the second orthodox Sunni theological school" besides Ashʿarīsm.<ref>Madelung, W., “Māturīdiyya”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition, Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs.</ref> It is evident from the surviving fifteenth-century accounts of Maturidi's tomb in the cemetery of Jākardīza in Samarkand that the theologian's tomb was "visited ... and held in honor for a long time" throughout the medieval period.<ref>Ulrich Rudolph, Al-Māturīdī and the Development of Sunnī Theology in Samarqand, trans. Rodrigo Adem (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2015), p. 130</ref> This veneration of the theologian seems to have arisen out of traditions preserved by several later scholars which detailed Maturidi's wisdom and spiritual abilities. For example, Abul Muīn al-Nasafī (d. 1114) stated that Maturidi's spiritual gifts were "immeasurably plentiful"<ref name="Ulrich Rudolph 2015 p. 131"/> and that "God singled him out with miracles (kāramāt), gifts of grace (mawāhib), divine assistance (tawfiq), and guidance (irshād, tashdīd)."<ref name="Ulrich Rudolph 2015 p. 131"/>

Contemporary Salafism and Wahhabism, however, tends to be very critical of Maturidi's legacy in Sunni Islam due to their aversion towards using any rational thought in matters of theology, which they deem to be heretical,<ref name="ReferenceA"/> despite this antagonism being a position that conflicts with the consensus of Sunnism throughout history.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="ReferenceC">Thomas, David, “Al-Māturīdī”, in: Christian-Muslim Relations 600 – 1500, General Editor David Thomas.</ref> As such, it is often said that mainstream "orthodox Sunnism" constitutes the followers of the theological traditions of Maturidi and Ashʿarī,<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="Macdonald, D. B. 1936">Macdonald, D. B., “Māturīdī”, in: Encyclopaedia of Islam, First Edition (1913–1936), Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, T.W. Arnold, R. Basset, R. Hartmann.</ref> while Salafism and Wahhabism have often been interpreted by the proponents of the two major schools to be minority splinter theological traditions opposed to the mainstream.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="ReferenceC"/> Furthermore, the minor theoretical differences between the theological formulations of Maturidi and Ashʿarī are often deemed by their respective followers to be superficial rather than real,<ref name="Macdonald, D. B. 1936"/> whence "the two schools are equally orthodox" in traditional Sunnism.<ref name="Macdonald, D. B. 1936"/> The traditional Sunni point of view is summarized in the words of the twentieth-century Islamic publisher Munīr ʿAbduh Agha, who stated: "There is not much [doctrinal] difference between the Ashʿarīs and Māturīdīs, hence both groups are now called People of the Sunna and the Community."<ref>Munīr ʿAbduh Agha, Namudhaj min al-A`mal al-Khayriyya, p. 134</ref>

Writings

• Kitab al-Tawhid ('Book of Monotheism')
• Ta'wilat Ahl al-Sunnah or Ta'wilat al-Qur'an ('Book of the Interpretations of the Quran')
• Kitāb Radd Awa'il al-Adilla, a refutation of a Mu'tazili book
• Radd al-Tahdhib fi al-Jadal, another refutation of a Mu'tazili book
• Kitāb Bayan Awham al-Mu'tazila ('Book of Exposition of the Errors of Mu'tazila)
• Kitāb al-Maqalat
• Ma'akhidh al-Shara'i' in Usul al-Fiqh
• Al-Jadal fi Usul al-Fiqh
• Radd al-Usul al-Khamsa, a refutation of Abu Muhammad al-Bahili's exposition of the Five Principles of the Mu'tazila
• Radd al-Imama, a refutation of the Shi'i conception of the office of Imam;
• Al-Radd 'ala Usul al-Qaramita
• Radd Wa'id al-Fussaq, a refutation of the Mu'tazili doctrine that all grave sinners will be eternally in hell fire.

See also

• Maturidi
• Abu Hanifa
• Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi
• Abu Bakr al-Samarqandi
• 2020 International Maturidi Conference
• Imam Maturidi International Scientific Research Center
• List of Maturidis
• List of Muslim theologians

Further reading

Primary

• Bazdawī, Uṣūl al-dīn, ed. H. P. Linss, Cairo 1383/1963, index s.v.
• Abu ’l-Muʿīn al-Nasafī, Tabṣirat al-adilla, quoted in Muḥammad b. Tāwīt al-Ṭānd̲j̲ī, Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, in IFD, iv/1-2 (1955), 1–12
• Ibn Abi ’l-Wafāʾ, al-Ḏj̲awāhir al-muḍīʾa, Ḥaydarābād 1332/1914, ii, 130-1
• Bayāḍī, Is̲h̲ārāt al-marām, ed. Yūsuf ʿAbd al-Razzāḳ, Cairo 1368/1949, 23
• Zabīdī, Itḥāf al-sāda, Cairo n.d., ii, 5
• Laknawī, al-Fawāʾid al-bahiyya, Cairo 1924, 195
• Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad al-Māturīdī: Muslim theologian, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica and Adam Zeidan

Secondary

• M. Allard, Le problème des attributs divins dans la doctrine d’al-Ašʿarī, Beirut 1965, 419–27
• M. Götz, "Māturīdī und sein Kitāb Taʾwīlāt al-Qurʾān," in Isl., xli (1965), 27–70
• H. Daiber, "Zur Erstausgabe von al-Māturīdī, Kitāb al-Tauḥīd," in Isl., lii (1975), 299–313

External links

• Template:In lang Biography of Imâm Al Mâturîdî by Shaykh GF Haddâd Template:Webarchive
• Template:In lang Biography of Imâm Al Mâturîdî by at-tawhid.net