Islamic theology

Muslim belief ( Akida ) is a kind of foundation of dogmas, ideas and ideas. It appeared in the period of active addition of the Islamic dogmatic-legal system (VIII c.), The immediate predecessor of which was written in the genre of "refutation" ( Rudd ) works. Unlike refutations, which were frankly polemical in nature, the Akida was a concise, clear text of a proclamatory character, which outlines the positions of a dogmatic school or an individual author in the basic issues of Islamic dogma and law (fiqh). The provisions postulated in the Akida are preceded by the formulas "one must believe in ..." ( al-iman bi ... ), "we are convinced that ..." ( for 'takiyud ) and others like them ^[1] .

The text of one of the first Akida goes back to the group of Syrian theologians (Umaya ibn Usman, Ahmad ibn Khalid ibn Muslim, Muhammad ibn Abdullah), who at the beginning of the VIII century. They spoke on behalf of the Sunnis (Ahlyu S-Sunna Wal-Jama'a) with a brief statement of the concept of faith . In the period of the formation of the main dogmatic schools of Islam (IX-XI centuries) such famous books on akida appeared, such as al-Fiqh al-Akbar and Kitab al-Vasiyah, attributed to Imam Abu Hanif , Akida al-Tahavi, as well as a number of akid pen belonging to the most prominent representatives of Mutazilism. In the middle of the IX. the Baqdad traditionalists made a series of aqids, the most famous of which are the six aqids of Ahmad ibn Hanbal . In the X - early XI century. the first asharite akids (Akida al-Ash'ari) are created, the anti-traditionalist “al-'Aqida an-Nizamiya” al-Juvaini, the Malikite - “ar-Risal” Ibn Abu Zeid al-Kairuvani ^[1] .

From the IX c. In the Akida began to be introduced the system of evidence of the main provisions, which included special "doxographic" parts. The development of Islamic dogma and law in the X century. led to the emergence of arches, which received the Muslim tradition of the name "Akida" or "i'tikad." These codes included the presentation and justification of the main dogmatic ideas, legal, ethical, ritual norms and rules. The most significant works of this kind belong to al-Ashari (X c.), Ibn Batta (X c.), Al-Ghazali (XI c.), Ash-Shahrastani (XII c.), Abdul-Qadir al-Jilani ( XII century.), Najmu-d-dinu an-Nasafi (XIV century.), Ibn Taymiyah (XIV century.) And other authors ^[2] .

Despite the emergence of expanded arches, a simple and accessible brief Akida remained one of the main forms of public “proclaiming” the foundations of the faith. In the XI century, she was elected to declare "orthodoxy" on behalf of the supreme power ("Kadirite creed") ^[2] .

A speculative discipline that gives a reason-based interpretation of Islamic dogma is called kalam ('ilm alkalam). Appeal to the mind as the highest authority in dealing with certain issues united calam with falsafa. The difference between the champions of kalam ( mutakallim ) and falsaf ( falasif ) was seen in the fact that the first, for the starting point of their reasoning, were repelled by problems specific to this religion, and the latter were based on ancient models of philosophizing. Falasif themselves saw the main difference of their science from Kalam in the methods of reasoning: in Falsaf, apodictic reasoning is used, and in Kalam - dialectical (in the Aristotelian sense of the term). In conducting the controversy, the Mutakallims most often resorted to deducing from the theses accepted by the opponent, undesirable for him or absurd conclusions (Ilsam) ^[3] .

Kalam emerged and developed initially during discussions with various religious-political groups (Kharijites, cadarites, Djabrits, Murdzhiits), as well as disputes with representatives of other religions (Mazdeism, Christianity). In these disputes, the method of reasoning inherent in kalam was developed, based on the symbolic-allegorical interpretation (ta'vil) of the Qur'an and excluding references to religious authorities (taklid) when arguing one or another thesis ^[3] .

The main problems of Kalam (Kalam kernel) are:

• qualities necessary for the leader of the Muslims (caliph, imam);
• the responsibility of a person for his actions (free will and predestination) ^[3] ;
• the qualification of a person as just a Muslim ( muslim ), as a true believer ( mu'min ), as an unbeliever ( kafir ), and as a person who has committed a serious sin ( sahib al-Kabir );
• the unity of God ( tawhid ) and the ratio of its essence and attributes;
• the creation or non-creation of the Qur'an in time ^[4] .

The “subtleties” of kalam ( Dakik al-Qalal, latif al-Qalal ) were of a natural-philosophical nature (movement and rest, substance and accidents, atoms and emptiness) ^[4] .

The method and problems characteristic of kalam are first encountered in the works of Jad ibn Dirham (executed in 742-43). He demanded to rely only on reason and subject Koran’s verses that contradict him to symbolism and allegorical interpretation (Tawil). Ema thought that it was impossible to ascribe to God eternal positive attributes, about the creation of the Qur'an in time, etc. His disciple Jahm ibn Safwan (executed in 745) spoke about the ability of reason, regardless of revelation, to distinguish good from evil and developed a pantheistically oriented doctrine, which affirmed the principle of fatalism. Jad ibn Dirham , Jahm ibn Safwan , and Dirar ibn Amr anticipated with their views the ideas of the Mu'āzilit school of kalam, which flourished in the first half of the 9th century ^[4] .

Beginning with the rule of al-Mutawakkil (847-861), mutazilism was subjected to persecution. Under these conditions, Abul-Hasan al-Ashari (873-935) made an attempt to legalize Kalam by compromise with dogmatists. The largest representatives of the Asharite school were al-Bakkillani (died in 1013), al-Juvaini (died in 1085), ash-Shahrastani (died in 1153) and Fakhruddin al-Razi (died in 1209 g.). From the 13th century begins the convergence of kalam with falsaf with the eastern peripateticism of the school of Ibn Sina. The rapprochement was prepared by the Mutakallims by the works of Al-Shahrastani and Fakhruddin Al- Razi , and by Falasif - Nasiruddin Al-Tusi. The stage of mixing kalam and falsaf is represented by the works of al-Baydawi (died in 1286), al-Isfahani (died in 1349), al-Iji (died in 1355), al-Taftazani (died in 1390), al-Dzhurdzhani (died in 1413), ad-Davvani (died in 1501), as-Sialkuti (died in 1657) ^[4] .

Along with the main schools of Kalam, there was a school of followers of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (died in 944). Kalam was attacked by the hanbalites and zahirits. At the same time, Ash'arite Qalam spread among the Shafi'ites, maturidism found supporters among the Hanafis, and Mu'tazilism among the Zaydi. In the new and modern times, the Kalam inspiration was inspired by Islamic reformers ( Jamaluddin al-Afghani , Muhammad Abdo ), liberal thinkers ( Ahmad Amin , Zaki Najib Mahmood ) and “Islamic leftists” ( Hassan Hanafi ) ^[4] .

Until the first half of the 8th century, the system of social, including legal, norms of the Muslim state consisted mainly of norms that had a pre-Islamic origin and continued to operate. Islam was initially indifferent to legal issues, and the legal system of the caliphate accepted certain elements of Roman Byzantine , Sassanian , Talmudic , Eastern Christian law, some local customs of the territories conquered by the Arabs, many of which were later Islamized and included in fikh ^[5] .

In the eighth and first half of the ninth century, the language and methodology developed in fiqh jurisprudence; The main sources of legal decisions were the Koran and Sunnah . The unanimous opinion of the Muslim community - ijma - was recognized as an independent source of legal decisions. It was concluded that the faqihs should extract answers to any practical questions from the Qur'an and Sunnah, and methods of such extraction were gradually developed ( al-truthb ). They were the basis of ijtihad . The conditions for the formulation of new norms were established by analogy by extracting the ratio legis ( illah ) from already known decisions, thus another source of legal decisions was recognized - qiyas . The recognition of the kiyas signified the emergence of a special fiqh direction - usul al-fiqh ^[6] .

Around the 10th century, fiqh jurisprudence finally emerged as an independent religious discipline. Gradually, it became generally accepted to understand fiqh as the science of the “practical” (regulating people's behavior) shari'at norms ( 'ilm al-furou ), “extracted” from their specific sources (Koran, Sunna, ijma, ijtihad, etc.). Fiqh began to include the study of two categories of norms: the rules of worship and the performance of religious duties ( Ibadat ); rules governing relations between people, the state and citizens, etc. ( mu'amalate ) ^[6]

Already at the early stage of the formation of fiqh, two of his schools were outlined: the Iraqi one, which used ijtihad more widely, not reducing it only to qiyasu; Medina, which focused on the Koran and the Sunnah. In the 9th — 10th centuries, other Sunni schools (madhhabs) were formed, in particular Shafi'itsky, characterized by strict use of ijtihad, identified with kiyas, as well as hanbalit mazhab, known for its widest use of the Koran and Hadith and distrustful attitude to ijtihad. Ja'farit (Imami), Zeidit, and Isma'ilite madhhabs currently operate in Shiite Islam ^[6] . The teachings of each of the madhhabs are presented in works, most of which are written in the early and classical Middle Ages by the founders of the madhhab, their closest students and followers ^[7] .

From the middle of the 9th century, the idea that only the great lawyers of the past had the right to ijtihad gradually became established in Sunnism. In the middle of the 10th century, a tacit consensus was reached, which made the emergence of new madhhabs impossible with its own system of ways to formulate legal decisions (fatwas). The need to follow the teachings of a certain madhhab is called taklid . Since then, the development of fiqh has continued within the recognized madhhabs ^[7] .

The most developed branch of fiqh-law is the right of personal status ( al-Akhval al-shakhsia ) - a set of rules governing marriage and family, hereditary, and some other close relations to them. However, even in the marriage-family area, local customs competed with fiqh-law, which nullified its individual provisions. The branch of criminal law ( 'ukubat' ), which included sanctions for all offenses regardless of their nature, directly depended on the government’s policy, which was reflected in the relationship between its secular and spiritual functions. The norms of state, administrative and financial law ( al-akhkam as-sultaniya ), the relations of Muslim authorities with other states, the order of warfare and the division of military booty ( as-syar ) were a relatively secondary element of law, more or less consistently implemented only in tax matters. legal status of non-Muslims, etc. It should also be borne in mind that although fiqh-law was central to legal systems, it did not cover all legal norms applied in the Middle Ages Islamic countries. Along with fiqh-law, there were also acts of a state under European law (for example, in the Ottoman Empire under the “capitulation regime”, as well as numerous legal practices ( adat ) ^[8] .

In the second half of the XIX century, in the legal systems of the most developed Islamic countries, fiqh-law gave way to legislation, which was copied primarily from Western European models. As a result, fiqh retained its position mainly in the regulation of relations of personal status ^[8] . For the development of al-F.-jurisprudence in the second half of XIX - early XX century. the appearance of works in the form of bills, which were prepared on behalf of the authorities, but did not receive state recognition, was characteristic ^[9] .

Although starting from the second half of the XIX century, the general trend was a steady decline in the role of fiqh. At present, in the countries with the predominant part of the Muslim population, to some degree or another, separate branches, institutions and fiqh norms continue to be applied ^[9] .

In modern conditions, fiqh jurisprudence has retained its value as a formal source of law. A number of laws of Muslim countries, in the absence of a rule in the law, provide for the application of the findings of fiqh jurisprudence. A similar principle is established by the civil codes of such countries as Algeria, Kuwait, and others, which in fact accept the conclusions of Islamic jurists as the source of solving cases in the case of silence of the law. The legislation of Bahrain, Iran and other countries allows the use of fiqh-law on all matters that are not regulated by law ^[9] .

At present, the constitutions of many Islamic countries recognize the fundamental source of fiqh as the main source of legislation. Therefore, in the preparation of relevant legislation is widely used classical works on fiqh. From the middle of the 20th century, the works of modern lawyers in various branches and fiqh-law institutes became widespread. In modern literature, an important place is occupied by studies on the comparative study of fiqh as a whole and its individual branches and modern legislation and other legal systems ^[9] .

Writings related to the science of understanding and interpreting the Qur'an ( 'ilm al-Qur'an vat-tafsir ) played a crucial role in the development of Islamic religious doctrine and reflected the main stages of the ideological and political struggle in the Arab-Muslim society ^[10] . In the course of the prophetic activity of Muhammad, the content of the text of the Quran underwent significant changes: some of the previously recited ayahs were replaced with new ones ( naskh and mansukh ), others received new interpretations, and others due to the specificity of the text were not clearly reversed. All this required the Prophet to give an interpretation of the “revelations” expressed. The associates of the Prophet Muhammad kept in mind the circumstances of the pronunciation of many ayahs, the causes of the controversy of the Prophet with his opponents. This is the most ancient stratum, which in one form or another has entered into most of the tafsir, reflecting the real history of the origin of the Koran. Over time, the importance of interpreting the Qur'an increased ^[10] .

Initially, tafsir was mostly orally ^[10] . Imams of mosques often commented on individual verses and suras after the Friday sermon (khutba). Wandering narrators and preachers ( kussas ) enriched interpretations with parallel material that goes back to the Judeo-Christian cultural environment ( Israel ) ^[11] . The development of tafsir is associated with the addition of the sunna of the prophet Muhammad. In the second half of the 8th century, collections of hadiths appeared, related to the interpretation of the Koranic text, embodying the principle of “sunna clarifies the Koran” ( as-sunna tufassir-l-Qur'an ). Later, special sections appeared in general collections of hadiths (for example, in Sahih al-Bukhari ). In the biography of the Prophet ( sira ), the ayahs were placed in an eventual context. In the writings of Muslim jurists ( fakih ), the subject of careful study and interpretation was ayahs related to legal norms. To a large extent, the first Arabic lexicographical and grammatical writings were associated with the needs of interpreting the Qur'an. The formation of the "science of tafsir" took place in close cooperation with the development of the teachings on the "readings" ( kiraat ) of the Qur'an and in the framework of the formation of the general dogmatic system of Islam. In this system, the Quran was declared the main "miracle" ( mu'jiz ), the main evidence of the superiority of the Muslim religious doctrine ( i'jaz al-Qur'an ), the main divine "sign" ( ayat ), confirmation of the truth of Muhammad's prophecy. Within this complex of disciplines, special essays began to arise on the interpretation of the Qur'an, which inherited the research procedure already developed and the terminological apparatus that was formed. По мусульманской традиции, основателем исламской экзегетики считается двоюродный брат Мухаммада — Абдуллах ибн Аббас (тарджуман аль-Кур'ан, ум. в 686 г.) ^[11] .

Обострение идеологической борьбы между Алидами и Аббасидами к концу правления Омейядов сделало «науку тафсира» оружием в борьбе за власть в Арабском халифате . Одновременно появились суннитский комментарий аль-Макки (642—722) и проалидские тафсиры аль-Джу'фи (ум. в 745-46 г.) и ас-Судди (ум. до 745 г.). Традиция шиитских комментариев развивалась главным образом в Куфе ^[11] .

С помощью аллегорического толкования Корана ( тавиль ), перестановок огласовок и логических ударений шиитские комментаторы интерпретировали ряд отрывков в пользу ' Али ибн Абу Талиба и его потомков. При этом они обвиняли суннитов в «извращении» ( тахриф ) текста Корана и уничтожение ряда ключевых аятов ^[11] . Идеологическая борьба между суннитами и шиитами нашла свое отражение в разделении общины на сторонников буквального толкования Корана ( захир ) и сторонников «скрытого», «тайного» смысла ( батин ). Приход Аббасидов к власти привёл к подавлению проалидской тенденции в толковании Корана. Её возрождение совпадает с правлением халифа аль-Мамуна (813—833), который проводил проалидскую политику ^[11] . В рамках категорий тафсир—та'виль проходила и полемика против толкований написанных суфиями ^[11] .

Наличие большого количества религиозно-политических течений, привели к тому, что в некоторых тафсирах зачастую совмещалось несколько точек зрения. Так, в тафсире Фахр ад-дина ар-Рази (ум. в 1209 г.) представлена как антиму'тазилитская, так и антизахиритская точка зрения ^[12] . Помимо упомянутых наиболее известными и авторитетными толкованиями Корана считаются сочинения ас-Са'либи (ум. в 1035 г.), аль-Байдави (ум. в 1286 г.), а также совместная работа Дж. аль-Махалли (ум. в 1459 г.) и ас-Суюти ( аль-Джалалайн ) ^[12] .

Отдельный ряд представляют сочинения об обстоятельствах ниспослания аятов ( асбаб ан-нузуль ), что позволяло ставить вопрос об их датировке. Особенно известны работы таких толкователей как ас-Суюти, аль-Вахиди (ум. в 1075 г.) и аль-'Ираки (ум. в 1175 г.) ^[12] . С жанром асбаб ан-нузуль связано направление посвященное отмененным аятам (ильм ан-насих ва аль-мансух). Данное направление развивалось в первую очередь в контексте исламского права (фикх). Наиболее известны работы Ибн Хазма (ум. в 1064 г.), ан-Наххаса (ум. в 950 г.) и Хибаталлаха ибн Саламы (ум. в 1019 г.) ^[12] .

Существуют труды, посвященные «превосходству» ( фадль ) и «достоинствам» ( фада'иль ) Корана, отдельных сур и аятов. Комментировались также отдельные понятия, сюжеты и образы Корана: описания Аллаха, таинственные буквы (мукатта, аль-фаватих), наказания и вознаграждения ( аджр ) и т. д. В условиях запрета перевода Корана на другие языки, комментарии, сопровождающие текст Священного писания, сыграли важную роль в ознакомлении с Кораном мусульман, незнакомых с арабским языком ^[12] .

На рубеже XIX—XX веков получила наибольшее развитие мусульманская реформистская экзегетика, отразившая столкновение мусульманского общества с европейской философской и научной мыслью ^[12] . С помощью тафсиров толкователи попытались, с одной стороны, внести в мусульманскую среду современные научные представления, сделав их в то же время приемлемыми в контексте традиционных религиозно-философских ценностей и представлений, с другой — объявить новые научные достижения и социальные представления предсказанными Кораном, помешать тем самым размыванию авторитета священного писания. Комментаторы опирались на традиции классического комментирования. Амин ал-Хули (ум. в 1965 г.) утверждал, что в сочинениях аль-Газали можно найти прообраз «научного комментария» ( ат-тафсир аль-'ильми ). В трудах Тантави Джаухари (1862—1940), аль-Кавакиби (1849—1903) и других комментаторов можно встретить самый разнообразный материал: от научно-популярных описаний солнечной системы и строения клетки до антиколониальной или антиматериалистической полемики ^[12] .

Тафсир широко используется в идеологической борьбе, в том числе шиитскими лидерами Ирана и движением ахмадия. С целью пропаганды современные толкования Корана часто переводятся на английский и другие западные языки. Сегодня свое значение сохраняют и средневековые тафсиры. У суннитов наиболее авторитетным современным толкованием признан тафсир аль-Манар Мухаммада 'Абдо (1849—1905) и Рашида Рида (1865—1935) ^[12] .

• Ислам: энциклопедический словарь / Отв. ed. S.M. Prozorov . - M .: Science ,GRVL , 1991 — ISBN 5-02-016941-2 .