Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari

Infobox_Muslim scholars | notability = Muslim scholar| era = Islamic golden age| color = #cef2e0 |

| image_caption = |
| name = Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Ismaˤel al-Ashˤari| title= al-Ash'ari| birth = AH|260|874 [Al-Albaani, Mukhtasar Al-'Uluww] | death = AH|324|936 [Al-Albaani, Mukhtasar Al-'Uluww] | Maddhab = Ash'ari| school tradition= | Ethnicity =
Region = | main_interests = Islamic theology| notable idea=
works = "Maqālāt al-eslāmīyīn" [ed. H. Ritter, Istanbul, 1929-30] , "Ketāb al-loma" [ed. and tr. R.C. McCarthy, Beirut, 1953] , "Ketāb al-ebāna'an osūl al-dīāna" [tr. W.C. Klein, New Haven, 1940]
influences = al-Jubba'i| influenced = |

Abū al-Hasan Alī ibn Ismā'īl al-Ash'arī (874 – 936) ( _ar. ابو الحسن بن إسماعيل اﻷشعري) was a Muslim Arab theologian and the founder of the Ash'ari school of early Islamic philosophy and Islamic theology.

Biography

Al-Ash'ari was born in Basra, Iraq, a descendant of the famous companion of Muhammad and arbitrator at Siffin for Ali ibn Abi Talib, Abu Musa al-Ashari. He spent the greater part of his life at Baghdad. Although belonging to an orthodox family, he became a pupil of the great Mutazalite teacher al-Jubba'i (d.915), and himself remained a Mutazalite until his fortieth year. In 912 he left the Mu'tazalites and became one of its most distinguished opponents, using the philosophical methods he had learned. Al-Ash'ari then spent the remaining years of his life engaged in developing his views and in composing polemics and arguments against his former Mutazalite colleagues. He is said to have written over a hundred works, from which only four or five are known to be extant.

Views

Al-Ash'ari was noted for his teachings on atomism, among the earliest
Islamic philosophies, influenced by Greek and Hindu concepts of "atoms of time and matter", and for al-Ash'ari the basis for propagating a deterministic view that Allah created every moment in time and every particle of matter. Thus cause and effect was an illusion. He nonetheless believed in free will, elaborating the thought of Dirar ibn Amr' and Abu Hanifa into a "dual agent" or "acquisition" account of free will. [Watt, Montgomery. Free-Will and Predestination in Early Islam. Luzac & Co.: London 1948.]

Muslims consider him to be the founder of the Ash'ari tradition of Aqeedah with the followers such as Abul-Hassan Al-Bahili, Abu Bakr Al-Baqillani, Imam Al-Haramain Abul-Ma’ali Al-Juwaini, Al-Razi and Al-Ghazali and [ [http://www.arabnews.com/?page=5&section=0&article=26116&d=12&m=5&y=2003] By Adil Salahi, Arab News] , adherents of the Shafi'i madhhab [ [http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/masudq2.htm] By Syaikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller ] and Sufis [ [http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/ashari.htm] By R. M. FRANK ] . Some Muslims contend, however, that toward the end of his life al-Ash'ari adopted the Athari creed of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, even affirming that Allah 'rose above his throne' and possesses a "face" and "hands" as mentioned in the Qur'an (though not a face or hands similar to anything in creation). [ [http://spubs.com/sps/sp.cfm?subsecID=GSC06&articleID=AQD060002&articlePages=1 Salafi Publications | The Creed of Abu Hasan al-Ash'aree ] ] "Al-Ibaanah", one of the last books that he wrote, is especially notable for al-Ash'ari accepting the Athari creed entirely. [ [http://spubs.com/sps/sp.cfm?subsecID=GSC06&articleID=AQD060001&articlePages=1 Salafi Publications | Abu Hasan al'Ash'ariyy's Final Book 'Al-Ibaanah' ] ] Some Muslims hold that al-Ibaanah was not his last but one his earliest books however, written by him upon departure from the Mu'tazilite school of thought. Gibril Haddad and Nuh Ha Mim Keller believe that al-Ibaanah was tampered to suit with Athari school of thought. [ [http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/misc/al_ashari.htm] by Dr. G.F Haddad ] [ [http://www.livingislam.org/ashari_e.html] by Dr. G.F Haddad ] [ [http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/nuh/masudq2.htm] By Syaikh Nuh Ha Mim Keller ]

While al-Ash'ari was opposed to the views of the Mu'tazili school for its over-emphasis on ijtihad (reason), he was also opposed to the views of certain orthodox schools such as the Zahiri, Mujassimite (anthropomorphist) and Muhaddithin (traditionalist) schools for their over-emphasis on taqlid (imitation) in his "Istihsan al‑Khaud": [M. Abdul Hye, Ph.D, [http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/hmp/14.htm Ash’arism] , "Philosophia Islamica".]

Legacy

Works

The Ashari scholar Ibn Furak numbers Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari's works at 300, and a biographer like Ibn Khallikan at 55; [Beirut, III, p.286, tr. de Slaine, II, p.228] Ibn Asāker gives the titles of 93 of them, but only a handful of these works, in the fields of heresiography and theology, have survived. The three main ones are:
*"Maqālāt al-eslāmīyīn", [ed. H. Ritter, Istanbul, 1929-30] it comprises not only an account of the Islamic sects but also an examination of problems in "kalām", or scholastic theology, and the names and attributes of Allah; the greater part of this works seems to have been completed before his conversion from the Mutaziltes.
*"Ketāb al-loma" [ed. and tr. R.C. McCarthy, Beirut, 1953]
*"Ketāb al-ebāna'an osūl al-dīāna", [tr. W.C. Klein, New Haven, 1940] an exposition of his developed theological views and arguments against Mutazilite doctrines. However the works is disputed as the last or the first books upon rejecting Mu'tazilite as mentioned by Imam Abu al-Hasan `Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Muqri (Ibn Matar) who died in the year 306: "Imam al-Ash`ari composed it in Baghdad upon entering it." [ [http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/misc/al_ashari.htm] Dr G. F Haddad]

PresentScholar|Shah Waliullah|18th|Sunni stated [Izalat al-Khafa p. 77 part 7] :

Notes

External links

* [http://www.livingislam.org/ashari_e.html Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash`ari; by G F Haddad]