Asharites

For many years, Abul-Hassan al-Ashari was a representative of the Mutazilite school of Islamic philosophy, but later he revised his beliefs and moved away from Mutazilism. Al-Ashari began to lay the philosophical and ideological foundations of orthodox Islam, for an adequate response to rationalist criticism of many provisions of the Koran and Sunnah. From the very beginning of their existence, the asharites opposed mutazilism, however, the asharites themselves were criticized by the asarites, who did not allow allegorical interpretations of the Koran and Sunnah of the Prophet Muhammad. During the reign of Caliph al-Mamun (813-833) and his immediate successors, the asharites were persecuted due to the opposition to the mutazilites. The main difference from the mutazilites was that the asharites were more careful in resolving a number of specific questions for the Kalam: they recognized the eternity of “substantial” divine attributes (knowledge, will, power, speech, vision, hearing and life) ^[2] ; They denied the “creation” of the Qur'an in relation to “meaning”, recognized the possibility of “seeing” ( ru'ya ) the righteous of Allah in the other world, while denying the possibility of explaining this ^[1] .

Reason (akl) and tradition (nakl)

In the field of worldview, the asharites affirmed the priority of reason ( aql ) over religious tradition ( nakl ), leaving the sharia as a regulator of the practical life of Muslims. However, along with this, they considered it necessary to unconditionally accept the main tenets of the faith , and only then the evidence of these tenets on the basis of the provisions of the mind. At the same time, the asharites accepted the arguments of reason to prove the provisions of faith, but Revelation itself should be taken on faith. Thus, in the system of asharizm, the arguments of reason are subordinate to the provisions of faith. As part of the approval of the priority of reason and the recognition of the texts of the Koran and Sunnah al-Ashari and his followers recognized the logical methods of researching problems and applied them in a polemic with mutazilites ^[3] .

Free will

The asharites sought to harmonize the points of view of cadarites and jabrists and, in order to work out a “golden mean” on the issue of predestination and freedom of choice, Abu al-Hassan Ali al-Ashari introduced the concept of “kasb” - “appropriation”, according to which God, after or with the created human ability performs the performed action; if a person wants this and takes up this action, then this action is called kasb, therefore this action is created by God and appropriated by a certain person. With this definition, Kasbah al-Ashari essentially rejected the ability of a person to be the creator of his actions and actions. The student of al-Ashari al-Bakillani changed the term “appropriation” to introduce the concept of choice and intention in “appropriation”. Most asharites believed that man is the place of coincidence of action and ability created by God and that all human action is created by God and is only appropriated by man ^[1] .

Divine Attributes

The Asharites divided the divine attributes into siphat as-salbia ( Arabic. الصفات السلبية ) (that is, attributes peculiar only to Allah and not inherent in His creation), siphat as-subutia (evidentiary attributes) and siphat al-asma (attributes inherent in the personality of Allah ), which coincide with the provisions of evidence-based attributes.

The Creation of the Quran

The Asharites believed that the words, pronunciation of the Quran were created, but the meaning of the Quran is eternal. They distinguished between “sensual”, “verbally expressed” speech ( Kalam Hissi, Kalam Lafzi ) and speech “internal”, “to oneself” ( Kalam Nafsi ) ^[3] .

Principle of Admissibility

The Asharites put forward the "principle of admissibility" ("everything that can be imagined is also acceptable for thought"), which is a variation of the method of "imaginary assumptions" typical of medieval philosophy. Following this principle, Fakhruddin ar-Razi , admitted that along with our world, perhaps there are thousands of other worlds ^[1] .

Asharism, like Kalam as a whole, is distinguished by rationalism , anti-authoritarianism and emphasis on philosophical issues. Starting with the activities of al-Shahrastani and ar-Razi, there is a rapprochement between Islam and eastern peripatism , which ultimately ended in their merger. Here is what al-Shahrastani wrote about this similarity: “What you (the Falasif) call“ thinking [of God] ”, we (Asharites) call“ eternal knowledge ”, and what you call“ providence ”, we call“ eternal by will. " And just as, from your point of view, providence is based on knowledge, in the same way, from our point of view, will is directed at the subject of will in accordance with knowledge. There is no difference between the other doctrine ” ^[4] .

Among the theologians who made a significant contribution to the development of the Asharite school of Kalam were such famous Islamic theologians, al-Bakillani (d. 1013), Ibn Furak (d. 1015) Ibn Tahir al-Baghdadi (d. 1037), al- Dzhuvaini (d. In 1085), al-Ghazali (d. In 1111), al-Shahrastani (d. In 1153), ar-Razi (d. In 1209) and others. ^[1] From the followers of asharism we can distinguish al- Baykhaki (d. 1066), al-Kurtubi (d. 1273), al-Navawi (d. 1278), al-Ascalani (d. 1448), al-Suyuti (d. 1505), etc.

• Michel Adrien Allard Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī // Encyclopædia Britannica