Famous Scholars

Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (853-944)

Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Samarḳandī (853-944 CE; Persian: محمد بن محمد بن محمود أبو منصور ماتریدی سمرقندی حنفی‎), often referred to as Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī for short, or reverently as Imam Māturīdī by Sunni Muslims, was a Sunni Hanafi jurist, theologian, and scriptural exegete from ninth-century Samarkand who became the eponymous codifier of one of the principal orthodox schools of Sunni theology, the Maturidi school, which became the dominant theological school for Sunni Muslims in Central Asia and later enjoyed a preeminent status as the school of choice for both the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire.

In contrast to Ashʿarī (d. 936), the founder of one of the other major orthodox Sunni theological schools, Maturidi adhered to the doctrine of Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 772) as transmitted and elaborated by the Hanafi theologians of Balkh and Transoxania. It was this theology which Maturidi systematized and used to refute not only the opinions of the Mutazilites, the Karrāmites, and other heterodox groups among the Sunnis, but also non-Muslim theologies such as those of Chalcedonian Christianity, Miaphysitism, Manichaeanism, Marcionism, and Bardaisanism.

When Maturidi was growing up there was an emerging reaction[24] against some schools within Islam, notably Mu'tazilis, Qarmati, and Shi'a. The Sunni scholars were following Abu Hanifa. Maturidi, with other two preeminent scholars,[25] wrote especially on the creed of Islam and elaborated Abu Hanifa's doctrine, the other two being Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari in Iraq, and Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tahawi in Egypt.[26]

While Al-Ash'ari and Al-Tahawi were Sunni together with Maturidi, they constructed their own theologies diverging slightly from Abu Hanifa's school. Al-Ash'ari, enunciated that God creates the individual's power (qudra), will, and the actual act[27] giving way to a fatalist school of theology, which was later put in a consolidated form by Al Ghazali.[28] Maturidi, followed in Abu Hanifa's footsteps, and presented the "notion that God was the creator of man’s acts, although man possessed his own capacity and will to act".[29] Maturidi and Al-Ash'ari also separated from each other in the issue of the attributes of God,[30] as well as some other minor issues.

Later, with the impact of Persianate states such as Great Seljuq Empire[31] and Ottoman Empire,[32] Hanafi-Maturidi school spread to greater areas where the Hanafi school of law is prevalent, such as Afghanistan, Central Asia, South Asia, Balkan, Russia, China, Caucasus and Turkey.

 

Writings

  • Kitāb al-Tawḥīd ('Book of Monotheism')
  • Kitāb Radd Awa'il al-Adilla, a refutation of a Mu'tazili book
  • Radd al-Tahdhib fi al-Jadal, another refutation of a Mu'tazili book
  • Kitāb Bayan Awham al-Mu'tazila ('Book of Exposition of the Errors of Mu'tazila)
  • Kitāb Ta'wilat al-Qur'an ('Book of the Interpretations of the Quran')
  • Kitāb al-Maqalat
  • Ma'akhidh al-Shara'i' in Usul al-Fiqh
  • Al-Jadal fi Usul al-Fiqh
  • Radd al-Usul al-Khamsa, a refutation of Abu Muhammad al-Bahili's exposition of the Five Principles of the Mu'tazila
  • Radd al-Imama, a refutation of the Shi'i conception of the office of Imam;
  • Al-Radd 'ala Usul al-Qaramita
  • Radd Wa'id al-Fussaq, a refutation of the Mu'tazili doctrine that all grave sinners will be eternally in hell fire.
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