Islamic Theology and Philosophy

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Islamic Theology and Philosophy
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Major Tensions in Islamic Theology

• Khawd Speculation vs. bila kayf
• Reason vs. Revelation
• Surrender to revealed text vs. questioning
• Is God really above us? issue
• Do we believe in fallible hadith for our
  doctrine? sources
• Literal vs. Figurative Interpretation
• What is Gods hand like?
• Do we protect Gods power or His justice? Free
  Will vs. Pre-Destination

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The Flow of Islamic Theological History
800 CE
950 CE on

• Rationalist/Mutazilite
• God is rational god
• Reason tells us what is possible and impossible
  in belief
• Hadith not reliable enough for doctrine

Adiosexcept for Zaydis and Imamis
Abu al-Hasan al-Ashari (d. 935)

• The Ashari Compromise
• Figurative interpretation of Gods attributes
• Speculation allowed to prevent heretical beliefs
• Mutazilite tools used to achieve Sunni
  Literalist results
• ilm al-kalam speculative theology

Sunnis

• Literalists
• O.g. ahl al-sunna
• No speculation
• Follow hadith in doctrine

• Literalist/Ahl al-Hadith
• No speculation, no rational tools
• But heretical beliefs not the correct literal
  readings!

Sunni
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Major Issues of Contention

• Free Will vs. Predestination political origins?
• Quran supports both
• God does not change the condition of a people
  until they change themselves
• Anfal 42
• Mutazilite Position man must have free will
  because it would not be just for God to judge
  people for what they were predestined to do.
• Original Sunni Position predestinarian but
  dont ask!
• Sunni Position/Ashari Compromise God creates
  mans actions, but we acquire them and thats
  what were judged for

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Major Issues of Contention 2

• The Fate of the Grave Sinner political?
• Kharijite grave sinner is an unbeliever
• Mutazilite Position if God says that a
  punishment leads to hellfire, then even a Muslim
  is condemned to hellfire
• Sunni Position a grave sinner is still a Muslim,
  and if God wishes He can forgive him (or not)
• Bigger question what is the nature of faith?
  Belief? Actions? Or Both?

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Nature of Faith

• Murjiite The Hopers faith is a knowledge
  and belief, actions cant affect it. Supposedly
  held by Abu Hanifa
• Kharijites faith is both belief in the heart
  (based on knowledge of course) and deeds deeds
  indicate it 100!
• Sunnis faith is belief in the heart, a
  statement by the tongue and acting on the
  pillars ? denying an essential duty is
  disbelief!

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Major Issues of Contention 3

• Gods Attributes how does He speak? Does He have
  hands?
• Mutazilite Position Gods speech is created
  (i.e., the Quran)
• Original Sunni/Ahl al-Hadith Position
• Gods hands are hands, dont ask! God is above
  us, God descends to the lowest heavens at night
• Sunni/Ashari position Gods hands are
  figurative for power, to assign a direction to
  God is disbelief.

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Major Issue of Contention 4

• Can Hadith Create Dogma?
• Mahdi from hadith
• Return of Jesus Antichrist from hadith
• Punishment of the Grave from hadith
• Mutazilite Position these are not
  substantiated!
• Original Sunni/Ahl al-Hadith Position hadith are
  sufficient if authenticated
• Sunni/Ashari Position these beliefs are 100
  because community has agreed on them!

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Islamic Philosophy

• Derived from Classical Greek and Hellenistic
  Logic and Philosophy
• Aristotle (d. 322 BCE) logic, categorization of
  proofs, God as First Cause
• Plotinus (d. 270 CE) creation as a series of 4
  concentric emanations (the last is material
  world) a from the One, Perfect, God an
  attribute-less Will
• Reason is the link connecting us with the closest
  of the spheres the Active Intellect the realm
  of souls
• Through proper understanding one can achieve
  moments of ecstatic union with the One Theology
  of Aristotle?

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Islamic Adoption and Synthesis

• Al-Kindi (d. 866) first Arab/Muslim philosopher
  philosophy as the search for truth (talab
  al-haqq)
• Al-Farabi (d. 950) elaborates Islamic
  Neo-Platonism 10 spheres corresponding to 10
  celestial bodies last before earth the Active
  Intellect (reason and prophets alone access it)
• Ibn Sina/Avicenna (d. 1037) fully developed
  Islamic neo-Platonism
• Ibn Rushd/Averroes (d. 1198)represents full
  synthesis of Aristotelian thought and Islam ?

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Islamic Aristotelian Thought

• Highly debated! But with al-Ghazali (d. 1111)
  its generally accepted
• Logic is a tool of investigation and lingua
  franca of thought theology, law, language
• Levels of Proofs/Audiences Aristotles Organon
  (70AD works of Aristotle all edited and combined
  by Andronicus of Rhodes )
• Demonstration yields certainty
• Dialectic Argument for scholars, yields
  probability only
• Rhetoric for the masses
• Poetry also for the masses

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God takes your charity with His hand

• More than one scholar has said that this hadith
  and other narrations like it dealing with Gods
  attributes and the Lord most highs descending
  every night to the lowest heavens, that these
  narrations have been established as reliable
  and are to be believed. They say that one should
  not fall into error concerning them and say How
  could this be? It has been reported that Malik
  b. Anas, Sufyan b. Uyayna and Abdallah b.
  al-Mubarak all said about such hadiths, Take
  them as is without asking How. Such is the
  stance of the scholars from the People of the
  Sunna and the Early Community (Ahl al-Sunna wa
  al-Jamaa). al-Tirmidhi (d. 892) back

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Surat al-Anfal 42

• When you were on the nearer side (of the
  valley) and they were on the farthest side, while
  the caravan was in a lower place than you and if
  you had mutually made an appointment, you would
  certainly have broken away from the appointment,
  but-- in order that Allah might bring about a
  matter which was to be done, that he who would
  perish might perish by clear proof, and he who
  would live might live by clear proof and most
  surely Allah is Hearing, Knowing.
• back

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Early Sunni Position

• Ibn Hanbal these sahih hadiths, we believe
  in them and affirm them. All that comes from the
  Messenger of God with a good isnad we affirm, For
  if we do not affirm what the Messenger of God
  brought and rejected it then we would refuse
  Gods command that What the Messenger has
  brought you, take it.
• back