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USI Chapter#04
Chapter 4
Changes in the Meanings of Islam. Section a
Orthodox Schools of Thoughts. Section b
Rationalist Movements. Section – a
ORTHODOXISM
Due to the Muthazilites, who preferred reason to the revelation, Orthodox Schools of thoughts, which included Safities, Jabarites, Zahirites, the Mujassamites (Anthropomorphist), the Muhadathin (Traditionalists) who all tried to preserve the original religion of Islam from the foreign effects, i.e. especially from Greek philosophy. Muthazilites were influenced by Greek philosophy and they tried to explain everything with reasons. The Orthodox Schools of thoughts became strongly reactive to the teachings of Muthazilites and held strictly to the literal meaning of Quran. As, the Orthodox held their opinion in reaction to the rationalists, i.e. Muthazilites, therefore, they went to the other extreme as not to use reasons but professed the blind following or Taqleed. Some of the important teachings of the Orthodox Schools of thought are as following. The Orthodox groups, particularly the Zahirites, the Mujassamites (Anthropomorphist), the Muhadathin (Tradistionalists), and the Jurists, all of which were wholly opposed to the use of reason or Kalam in defending or explaining religious dogmas and condemned any discussion about them as innovation. The Zahirites became inclined to blind faith and blind following Taqleed. They objected use of reason, as innovation. Whereas, Asharites, a rational group, gave the answer, the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) had not stopped from the use of reasons, therefore, abolishing the use of reasons, is an innovation. The Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) was not unaware of these matters and philosophical problems and knew them in detail, as these problems did not arise during his lifetime; there was no question of his discussing or not discussing them. The companions of the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) discussed and argued about many religious matters, which appeared during their lifetime, although there was no direct and explicit injunction about them, and because of the absence of any explicit injunction from the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him), they differ in their judgments about them. Asharites did not oppose the use of reasons; on the other hand, Asharites considered rationalization of faith is necessary in Islam. On the other hand, Orthodox were the extremists, and their extreme views which were held by the Orthodox Schools of thoughts, maintained that Allah possesses all the attributes mentioned in the Quran and all such attributes as Allah having hands, legs, ears, eyes and He is sitting firmly “istova” on His throne, must be taken in literal sense. Such a view of the attributes of Allah is pure Anthropomorphism, implying Allah’s bodily existence whereas, Muthazilites were of the view that Allah is One, Eternal, Unique, and Absolute Being, Having no touch of dualism in Him. His essence is self-contained. He does not posses any attribute apart from His essence. His essence is for instance, knowing powerful, seeing, willing etc. They denied the attributes of Allah as anything other than and in addition to His essence. Whereas, the Asharites maintained a reconciliatory view between the two extremes, in agreement with the Safities and the opposition to the Muthazilites, who were influenced by the Greek philosophy. The Orthodox and Jabarites maintained a pure fatalistic view about the human actions. According to them, human actions are pre-determined and pre-destined by God. Man has no power to produce any actions. “Everything (they contend) is from God.” Allah has absolute powers over everything including human will and human actions. Whereas, the Muthazilites and Qadrites held that man has full power to produce actions and held that man has complete in his choice, though the power was created in him by Allah. As far as the problem of eternity of Quran was concerned, the Orthodox Schools of thought held the view, that Allah had it as one of his seven rational attributes, and His attributes are eternal, hence, divine speech, i.e. the Quran, is also eternal. The Hanbilites and the Zahirites held that the speech of Allah, i.e. the Quran, is composed of letters, words, and sounds which are there in the essence of Allah and is, therefore, eternal. Some of the Hanbilites went to the extreme and asserted that, even the cover and binding of Quran are eternal; i.e. this view was just opposite to the view of Muthazilites, who held Quran was created. According to Orthodox Schools of thought Beautific vision of Allah is possible and poise people would actually have His vision as chief reward for their good actions, they further held that Allah is settled firmly on His throne; He exists in different directions, and is capable of being pointed out. Except these Orthodox Schools of thoughts, there were traditional orthodox with little bit innovations as per the requirements of the area and time, they were called as Suffies. Famous Suffies among them are Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, Shahab ud Din Suharwardi, Moeen ud Din Chishti, Junaid Baghdadi and Mansoor Al Haaj etc., who became famous for their piety and religious education, which they imparted to the people in their areas of influence. Section – b
RATIONALIST MOVEMENT Mu’tazilah Wasil bin Atta born in eighty Hijri(Six hundred Nintine a.d) at Medina and died in One Thirty One Hijri, was a student of Hazrat Hassan Basiri and got separated from his teacher, on the position of the sinner of the great sins. By Hassan Basri and common Muslims they were called “Muthazilites” the “with drawers” or “secessionists”. They used to give more importance to reasons than to revelation and in the point of confrontation between reasons and revelation, they used to prefer reason. According to Al Shahrastani, essential teachings of Wasil consisted of the following teachings: Denial of the attributes of God.Man’s possession of free will to choose good deeds.Belief that who commits a grave sin occupies an intermediate position, i.e. he is neither believer nor unbeliever and grave sins would land him in the hell.The belief that out of the opposing parties that fought in the battle of the camel and from among the assassinators of Hazrat Usman (May Allah Be Pleased with Him) and his allies, one party was in error, though it can not be established, which. The period of Wasil is from 80 A.H. to 131 A.H. The time, which is just adjacent to the occurrences of differences, common man and scholars were forced by the government to remain quite on these subjects of occurrences of differences. The Muslim Ullama were made to teach about theology, and were made to be quite about prevailing scenario of politics. We find Muthazilites were the first in pointing towards the incidents of differences and problems concerning faith, which were controversial for the minds of masses. These agitating ideas had cropped up in the minds of masses due to occurrences of differences.
2. Asharites
This movement was in reaction of the teachings of Muthazalites. The founder, Al-Hassan Ali bin Ismael Al-Ash’ari was descendent of the companion of the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him). Musa Ash’ari, born in Two Sixty or Two Siventy Hijri and died at Baghdad in Three Thirty Hijri. Till the age of forty, Al Ash’ari was himself Muthazilite, but when he changed from Muthazilite thought, he became very earnest and it is said, that he wrote, round about three hundred books, in which he discussed many of such views in detail, as were not mentioned by others before. Ash’arites had to fight with rationalist and orthodox schools of thoughts simultaneously. As Muthazilite preferred reasons to the revelation and the orthodox schools of thought interpreted Quran literally, Ash’arites had to harmonize reasons with revelations. To complete, Ash’arites theological system, they developed their metaphysics to defend the faith and to harmonize reasons with revelation. Al-Ash’ari’s opinions did not get much recognition outside the Shafi’te group to which he belonged. The Hanafites preferred the doctrines of his contemporary Al-Maturidi who differed from Al-Ash’ari in certain minor controversial points. In Spain, Ibn Hazm opposed the Asharite doctrine. Niza Al-Mulk, famous Vazir of Sultan Ilp Arslan supported the Asharites and founded the Nizamite academy at Baghdad in Four Fifty Nine Hijry in defense of Asharite system. Although Al-Ghazali was not Asharite but actually it was Al-Ghazali, who practically made Asharite theology the theology of the Muslim community in general and has continued to remain so, up to the present time. Ikhwan Al-Safa The group of Ikhwan Al-Safa originated in Basra. In about 373/983, the group was already famous and its “Epistles”, were in wide circulation. They used to have complete secrecy about their names. Ikhwan Al-Safa cultivated science and philosophy, not for the sake of science and philosophy but in a hope of forming a kind of an ethical spiritual community in which elites of heterogeneous Muslim empire could find a refuge from the struggle that was raging among religious congregations, rational societies, and Muslim sects themselves. Ikhwan Al-Safa divided all branches of knowledge roughly into three major classes; Mathematics, Physics and Metaphysics, a classification, current since Aristotle’s days. Mathematics included in the “epistle”, the theory of numbers, geometry, astronomy, geography, music, theoretical and practical arts, ethics and logic. Physics included matter, form, motion, time, space, the sky, generation, minerals, the essence of nature, plants, animals, the human body, the senses, life and death, microcosm, pleasure, pain and language. Metaphysics was sub divided into psycho-rationalism and theology. Ikhwan Al-Safa was much interested in epistemology. According to them, philosophy, wisdom or philosophical wisdom, is to behave God like as best as a human being can. The main stress of Ikhwan Al-Safa was to bring unity among the Muslim sects and different schools of thoughts. These fractions of thoughts, started with the rationalist thinking by Muthazilites, whereas, Muthazilites movement was the outcome of the occurrences of the differences among the leading companions of the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him). As explained earlier, that it was the occurrences of differences due to which Muthazilite movement started. The orthodox, which held the literal meaning of Quran, was the reaction of the teachings of Muthazilites. Muthazilites and orthodox were the two extremes, one preferred reasons and other just preached the blind following, i.e. “Taqleed”. Asharites and Ikhwan Al-Safa were the movements, which used their energies to bring harmony, and used knowledge for bringing unity among the Muslims. Except these movements, many other philosophers touched the burning issues and tried for their solutions philosophically as the occasions demanded. The famous philosophers of the early times are Al-Kindi, Al-Razi, Ibn-e-Sina, and Ibn-e-Rush. Al-Ghazali and Nizam ul Mulk Tusi were the main persons responsible for the spread of rationalism of Asharite in the masses. After the Dark Age (Siventeen Hundred to Eighteen Fifty a.d renaissance movements started through out the Muslim world. Renaissance movement started by Abdul Wahab, influenced Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Whereas, Muhammad Abduh was responsible for renaissance in Egypt. In India, we see Shah Wali Ullah, leading the renaissance. Jamal ud Din Afghani and Dr. Iqbal tried to give political re-awakening to the Muslims by their ideas of Pan-Islamism. © mkwazire
Changes in the Meanings of Islam. Section a
Orthodox Schools of Thoughts. Section b
Rationalist Movements. Section – a
ORTHODOXISM
Due to the Muthazilites, who preferred reason to the revelation, Orthodox Schools of thoughts, which included Safities, Jabarites, Zahirites, the Mujassamites (Anthropomorphist), the Muhadathin (Traditionalists) who all tried to preserve the original religion of Islam from the foreign effects, i.e. especially from Greek philosophy. Muthazilites were influenced by Greek philosophy and they tried to explain everything with reasons. The Orthodox Schools of thoughts became strongly reactive to the teachings of Muthazilites and held strictly to the literal meaning of Quran. As, the Orthodox held their opinion in reaction to the rationalists, i.e. Muthazilites, therefore, they went to the other extreme as not to use reasons but professed the blind following or Taqleed. Some of the important teachings of the Orthodox Schools of thought are as following. The Orthodox groups, particularly the Zahirites, the Mujassamites (Anthropomorphist), the Muhadathin (Tradistionalists), and the Jurists, all of which were wholly opposed to the use of reason or Kalam in defending or explaining religious dogmas and condemned any discussion about them as innovation. The Zahirites became inclined to blind faith and blind following Taqleed. They objected use of reason, as innovation. Whereas, Asharites, a rational group, gave the answer, the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) had not stopped from the use of reasons, therefore, abolishing the use of reasons, is an innovation. The Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) was not unaware of these matters and philosophical problems and knew them in detail, as these problems did not arise during his lifetime; there was no question of his discussing or not discussing them. The companions of the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him) discussed and argued about many religious matters, which appeared during their lifetime, although there was no direct and explicit injunction about them, and because of the absence of any explicit injunction from the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him), they differ in their judgments about them. Asharites did not oppose the use of reasons; on the other hand, Asharites considered rationalization of faith is necessary in Islam. On the other hand, Orthodox were the extremists, and their extreme views which were held by the Orthodox Schools of thoughts, maintained that Allah possesses all the attributes mentioned in the Quran and all such attributes as Allah having hands, legs, ears, eyes and He is sitting firmly “istova” on His throne, must be taken in literal sense. Such a view of the attributes of Allah is pure Anthropomorphism, implying Allah’s bodily existence whereas, Muthazilites were of the view that Allah is One, Eternal, Unique, and Absolute Being, Having no touch of dualism in Him. His essence is self-contained. He does not posses any attribute apart from His essence. His essence is for instance, knowing powerful, seeing, willing etc. They denied the attributes of Allah as anything other than and in addition to His essence. Whereas, the Asharites maintained a reconciliatory view between the two extremes, in agreement with the Safities and the opposition to the Muthazilites, who were influenced by the Greek philosophy. The Orthodox and Jabarites maintained a pure fatalistic view about the human actions. According to them, human actions are pre-determined and pre-destined by God. Man has no power to produce any actions. “Everything (they contend) is from God.” Allah has absolute powers over everything including human will and human actions. Whereas, the Muthazilites and Qadrites held that man has full power to produce actions and held that man has complete in his choice, though the power was created in him by Allah. As far as the problem of eternity of Quran was concerned, the Orthodox Schools of thought held the view, that Allah had it as one of his seven rational attributes, and His attributes are eternal, hence, divine speech, i.e. the Quran, is also eternal. The Hanbilites and the Zahirites held that the speech of Allah, i.e. the Quran, is composed of letters, words, and sounds which are there in the essence of Allah and is, therefore, eternal. Some of the Hanbilites went to the extreme and asserted that, even the cover and binding of Quran are eternal; i.e. this view was just opposite to the view of Muthazilites, who held Quran was created. According to Orthodox Schools of thought Beautific vision of Allah is possible and poise people would actually have His vision as chief reward for their good actions, they further held that Allah is settled firmly on His throne; He exists in different directions, and is capable of being pointed out. Except these Orthodox Schools of thoughts, there were traditional orthodox with little bit innovations as per the requirements of the area and time, they were called as Suffies. Famous Suffies among them are Sheikh Abdul Qadir Jilani, Shahab ud Din Suharwardi, Moeen ud Din Chishti, Junaid Baghdadi and Mansoor Al Haaj etc., who became famous for their piety and religious education, which they imparted to the people in their areas of influence. Section – b
RATIONALIST MOVEMENT Mu’tazilah Wasil bin Atta born in eighty Hijri(Six hundred Nintine a.d) at Medina and died in One Thirty One Hijri, was a student of Hazrat Hassan Basiri and got separated from his teacher, on the position of the sinner of the great sins. By Hassan Basri and common Muslims they were called “Muthazilites” the “with drawers” or “secessionists”. They used to give more importance to reasons than to revelation and in the point of confrontation between reasons and revelation, they used to prefer reason. According to Al Shahrastani, essential teachings of Wasil consisted of the following teachings: Denial of the attributes of God.Man’s possession of free will to choose good deeds.Belief that who commits a grave sin occupies an intermediate position, i.e. he is neither believer nor unbeliever and grave sins would land him in the hell.The belief that out of the opposing parties that fought in the battle of the camel and from among the assassinators of Hazrat Usman (May Allah Be Pleased with Him) and his allies, one party was in error, though it can not be established, which. The period of Wasil is from 80 A.H. to 131 A.H. The time, which is just adjacent to the occurrences of differences, common man and scholars were forced by the government to remain quite on these subjects of occurrences of differences. The Muslim Ullama were made to teach about theology, and were made to be quite about prevailing scenario of politics. We find Muthazilites were the first in pointing towards the incidents of differences and problems concerning faith, which were controversial for the minds of masses. These agitating ideas had cropped up in the minds of masses due to occurrences of differences.
2. Asharites
This movement was in reaction of the teachings of Muthazalites. The founder, Al-Hassan Ali bin Ismael Al-Ash’ari was descendent of the companion of the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him). Musa Ash’ari, born in Two Sixty or Two Siventy Hijri and died at Baghdad in Three Thirty Hijri. Till the age of forty, Al Ash’ari was himself Muthazilite, but when he changed from Muthazilite thought, he became very earnest and it is said, that he wrote, round about three hundred books, in which he discussed many of such views in detail, as were not mentioned by others before. Ash’arites had to fight with rationalist and orthodox schools of thoughts simultaneously. As Muthazilite preferred reasons to the revelation and the orthodox schools of thought interpreted Quran literally, Ash’arites had to harmonize reasons with revelations. To complete, Ash’arites theological system, they developed their metaphysics to defend the faith and to harmonize reasons with revelation. Al-Ash’ari’s opinions did not get much recognition outside the Shafi’te group to which he belonged. The Hanafites preferred the doctrines of his contemporary Al-Maturidi who differed from Al-Ash’ari in certain minor controversial points. In Spain, Ibn Hazm opposed the Asharite doctrine. Niza Al-Mulk, famous Vazir of Sultan Ilp Arslan supported the Asharites and founded the Nizamite academy at Baghdad in Four Fifty Nine Hijry in defense of Asharite system. Although Al-Ghazali was not Asharite but actually it was Al-Ghazali, who practically made Asharite theology the theology of the Muslim community in general and has continued to remain so, up to the present time. Ikhwan Al-Safa The group of Ikhwan Al-Safa originated in Basra. In about 373/983, the group was already famous and its “Epistles”, were in wide circulation. They used to have complete secrecy about their names. Ikhwan Al-Safa cultivated science and philosophy, not for the sake of science and philosophy but in a hope of forming a kind of an ethical spiritual community in which elites of heterogeneous Muslim empire could find a refuge from the struggle that was raging among religious congregations, rational societies, and Muslim sects themselves. Ikhwan Al-Safa divided all branches of knowledge roughly into three major classes; Mathematics, Physics and Metaphysics, a classification, current since Aristotle’s days. Mathematics included in the “epistle”, the theory of numbers, geometry, astronomy, geography, music, theoretical and practical arts, ethics and logic. Physics included matter, form, motion, time, space, the sky, generation, minerals, the essence of nature, plants, animals, the human body, the senses, life and death, microcosm, pleasure, pain and language. Metaphysics was sub divided into psycho-rationalism and theology. Ikhwan Al-Safa was much interested in epistemology. According to them, philosophy, wisdom or philosophical wisdom, is to behave God like as best as a human being can. The main stress of Ikhwan Al-Safa was to bring unity among the Muslim sects and different schools of thoughts. These fractions of thoughts, started with the rationalist thinking by Muthazilites, whereas, Muthazilites movement was the outcome of the occurrences of the differences among the leading companions of the Prophet (Peace Be upon Him). As explained earlier, that it was the occurrences of differences due to which Muthazilite movement started. The orthodox, which held the literal meaning of Quran, was the reaction of the teachings of Muthazilites. Muthazilites and orthodox were the two extremes, one preferred reasons and other just preached the blind following, i.e. “Taqleed”. Asharites and Ikhwan Al-Safa were the movements, which used their energies to bring harmony, and used knowledge for bringing unity among the Muslims. Except these movements, many other philosophers touched the burning issues and tried for their solutions philosophically as the occasions demanded. The famous philosophers of the early times are Al-Kindi, Al-Razi, Ibn-e-Sina, and Ibn-e-Rush. Al-Ghazali and Nizam ul Mulk Tusi were the main persons responsible for the spread of rationalism of Asharite in the masses. After the Dark Age (Siventeen Hundred to Eighteen Fifty a.d renaissance movements started through out the Muslim world. Renaissance movement started by Abdul Wahab, influenced Arabia, Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. Whereas, Muhammad Abduh was responsible for renaissance in Egypt. In India, we see Shah Wali Ullah, leading the renaissance. Jamal ud Din Afghani and Dr. Iqbal tried to give political re-awakening to the Muslims by their ideas of Pan-Islamism. © mkwazire
