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Al-Ash' Ari and His Concept of Tawhid

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Ors. H.M.A. TIHAMI, M.A. AL-ASH' ARI AND HIS CONCEPT OF TAWHID INTRODUCTION are as follows: Prophet Muhammad, peace be 1. Qur'an, 112: 1-5: upon him, appeared in the history Say! He is God. The One and Only. of human society w.ith a zeal of God, the Eternal, Absolute. He be­ an icon�last who taught and getteth not. Nor He is Begotten. 1 preached that there is only One And there is non Like unto Him . supreme and absolute power and 2. Qur'an, 2:163: his commitment to the one Su­ And your God Is One God, There is preme power found ex-pression in no God But He, Most Gracious, the first aspect of Shahadah: "la Most Merciful2 ilaha ilia Allah'' which means Ethimologically, tawhid is de· 'there is no god but Allah'. In this rived from the Arabic word ahadu witness we can see that there is or wahid which means that God first negation "la", the negation is one without a second, without of multiplicity of divinities and any other co-eternal entity, of com­ then follows the affirmation "illa" plete supremacy, unrivaled, unop­ that Allah is the only God who posed, unequaled, and unchal­ deserves to be worshipped and to lenged. In the context of Islamic whom man finally is destined to theology, it is used to express the return. unity or oneness of Godhead3. Allah himself reveals the na­ Similarly, Muhammad 'Abduh had ture of tawhid in many verses in said that "the original meaning the holy Qur'an severe! of which of tawhid is the believe that God Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Meaning of Glorious Qur'an: Text, Translation and Copmmentary, Vol. 2, (Cairo: Dar al-Kitab al- Masri, nd, 1983), p. 1806 . .2 Ibid. p. 63. 3 E. Dada Adelowo. "The Concept of Tawbid in Islam" in The Islamic Quarterly. Vol. XXXV, No 1. (January, 1991), p.24. 49 is one in inalieanable clivinity."4 a descendant of one of the famous Actually, the word of tawhid is Companions of the Prophet, Abu non Qur'anic, but it is found in Musa al-Ash'ari. Before he stud­ hadith and is inextricably inte­ ied theology under Abu 'Ali Mu­ grated with the formulations of hammad Ibn 'Abel al-Wahhab al­ Islamic faith5. In later time when Juba'i, a foremost Mutazilite the religious sciences developed in theologian, he had received the Islam, the particular discipline of usual Islamic education in Qur'an, 'Ilm al-Kalam was also called 'Ilm Traditions, Arabic philology and 8 al-Tawhid. Concerning this dis­ Shari'ah . In later time, although cipline 'Abduh further said: "The he was known as an ardent stu­ theology of Unity or tawhicl is the dent of Mu'tazibte theology and science that studies the being and he gained a reputation as a bril­ attributes of Goel, the essential liant debater on the theology in and the possible affirmations the mosques and wrote works in about Him, as well as the nega­ line with the rationalist tradition, tions that are necessary to make when he reached age forty, how­ relating to Him116 . It is in line ever, he moved to the traditional with this meaning of tawhid that Islamic theology. This is because this discussion will go. he did not feel ·contend anymore to the answers given by his master Ash'ari's Life and Works to the questions on theology that he proposed9. Since then he tried Ash'ari whose complete name to solve his own problems and was Abu al-Hasan 'Ali Ibn Isma'il established a separate school of al- Ash'ari was born in Basrah in theology that is later on known 270 HI 873 AD,and died in Bagh­ 7 after his name, Ash'arism. dad in 330 H./ 941 AD . He was 4 Muhammad 'Abduh. The Theology of Unity. (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1966). p.29. 5 See Louis Gardet. "God in Islam" in i, "encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 6. Edited by Mircea Eliade et al. (London: New York: MacMillan Publishing Company, 1987). p.28. and D.B. Macdonald. "Tawhid" in First Encyclopaediaof Islam. Vol. VIII . Edited by M. Th. Houtsma, et al. (Leiden, New York: E.J. Brill, 1987), p. 704. 6 Muhammad 'Abduh, Op cit. p.29. 7 There is difference about the exact birthdate of Ash'ari. The date which is applied in this paper is based on Tabyin Kidhb al-Muftari. written by lbn 'Asakir. 8 George F. Hourani. Reason and Tradition in Islamic Ethics. (London, New York, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 118. :al �cc YVotter c. Klein·� Introduction to Ah'°l�h·ori. Tin:: Elucirlation or Islam's Founrlation, pp. 26-27. 50 Henceforth al-Ash'ari is also 5. Al-lbanah 'an Usul al-Diy­ known as "the first initiator of anali (fhe Clear Statement the main school of Sunnitate on the Fundamental Elements 10 Kalam." of the Faith). A1-A5h'ari was a very prolific 6. Al-hathth 'ala al-Bahth (fhe theologiaH who wrote no less than Exhortation to Investigation). three hundred books. Among of these works, however, there are Several books, besides com­ only ninety-three books that have mentary on Qur'an, that be wrote been given their titles by Ibn b(lorG his convGrsion include Al­ 'Asakir Dimashqi. Even more, Mijiz (The Epitome); Al-'Amacl fi there are. only a few of them that al- Ru'yah (The Pillars Concerning can be preserv€d and enumerated God's Visibility); ldah al-Burhan by Brockelman 11. Below are (The Clarification of Demonstra­ given several of his most impor­ tion); and Al-Ajwibah al-Misriyah tant works which he composed 12 (The Egyptian Response) . after he ·�retired" from Mu'tazilite school: 1. Maqallat al-lslamiyyin (Theo­ The Concept of Ta w hid Ac­ logical Opinions of the Mus­ cording to al-Ash'ari lims). Ash'arism, which is often re­ 2. Risallah ila ahl al-Thaghr bi­ ferred as ahl sunnah wa al­ Bab al-Abwab (Epistle to the jamaah 13, raised in the history of people of the Frontier at Bab Islamic theology not merely as a al-Abwab). protest against the religious ra­ tionalism of the Mu'tazilites who 3. Al-Luma' (The Concise Re­ "held that reason is more funda­ marks). Al-Iman mental than revelation and is to 4. (Belief) be preferred to revelation," 14 but 10 W. Montgomery Watt. Islamic PtuYosophy and Theology. 2nd ed. (Edinburg: Edinburg Univer!iity Press, 1992), p.67. 1 1 M_Abdul Hye. "Ash'arism'" in A History or Muslim Philosophy. "Edited by M.M. Sharif. (Karachi: Royal Book Company, 1966). p. 223. 12 R.M. Frank. "al-Ash'an·· in The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. I. Edited by Mircea Eliade, et.al. (London, New York: McMillan Publishing Company, 1987), p.446. 13 See, R.M. Frank. "al-Ash' ari" in The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. I. Edited by Mircea Eliade, et.al. (London, New York: McMillan Publishing Company, 1987), p.449. and Muhammad 'Abduh. Op cit., p.36. 14 M.Abdul Hye. "Ash'arism" in A History of Muslim PhHosophy. Edited by M.M. Sharif. 51 it also emerged as opposition to it is provoked by the claims of a the extreme orthodox classes, par­ prophet, and that it is because of the ticularly the Zahirites, the Mujas­ rational validity of the prophet Mu­ simites, Muhaddithin, and the Ju­ hammad's basic teaching that one tists, all of which were whollyin must accept the entire revelation, in­ cluding those dogmas that can not be contradiction to the use of reason inferred on pure! y rational grounds in defending religious dogmas and and submit unconditionally to the condemned it as being innova­ d evme. I aw. .17 . tion 15. Henceforth, Ash'arism ex­ In line with this point of view, isted as an intermediary position al-Ash'ari believes in that, as between the two opposed schools stated again and again in the of thought. lnstead of rejecting Qur'an, God is one and the only. rationalism or blindly following "There is no God b es1·d es Him"113. revelation Ash'ari and his follow­ His being is eternal and uncon­ ers held that revelation is more ditioned; in His self and in His fundamental as the source of ul­ essential attributes, His nonex- timate truth and reality, and rea­ 19 istence IS. unposs1· "bl e . Agam·, son should merely confirm what 6 when al-Ash'ari discusses the at­ is given by revelation 1 . I 6, Rea­ tributes of God and their relation­ son therefore, should be subordi- ship with His essence, he has to nat�d to revelation and its face two extreme opposite groups function is none other than of school of thought. The frrst to rationalize faith in the group is that of holding tha God basic principles of Islam and � has all attributes as mentioned not to question the validity of in the holy Qur'an that are taken truth as embodied in the Qur'an in their literal sense Such a view and the Sunnah. Relating to this . of the God's attributes may lead R.M. Frank points out that al­ to an anthropomorphism that im­ Ash'ari, the founder of the plies that God exists bodily. The Ash'arite school, holds that: Schools of this group include the " ... Theological inquiry is not origi­ Attributists or Sifatis, the Anthro- nated autonomously by the mind but (Karachi: Royal Book Company, 1966), p. 231. 15 M. 'Abdul Hye, "Ash'arism", p. 224. 16 M.
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