Early Ibadi Theology New Material On Rational Thought In Islam From The Pen Of Al Faz R 2nd 8th Century

"Al-Fazārī's writings are a unique source of information about Ibadi teachings on ʻilm al-kalām and the early development of this branch of religious knowledge. It is for this reason that scholars of Islamic theology are particularly interested in early Ibadi theology. In this volume newly discovered, re-edited texts by al-Fazārī are presented, with previously lacking fragments included, texts that had already begun to offer new perspectives on Islamic ʻilm al-kalām, and on its origins and the sources of its concepts and debating techniques. In their revised state these Ibadi texts represent a major contribution to scholastic theology. They demonstrate how their respective theological debates already took place at the beginning of the second/eighth century and how associated ideas, as well as related sects and treatises, remained current for some time afterwards, thereby contradicting earlier claims that these debates started in the third/ninth century"--

'Abd Allah b. Yazid al-Fazari (2nd/8th century) was one of the leading early Islamic theologians. His works are still among the most reliable and accessible to scholars and this text is a significant new addition to al Fazari's texts that were previously published (IHC. 104/IHC. 182). This present study is based on a discussion of al-Fazari's teachings with the title Kitab fi al-Tawhid, which is a commentary on his lost work by an anonymous North African Ibadi theologian and is unique because it is among the few known works which describe the doctrine of the early Ibadis. The addition of this text to al -Fazari's previously discovered writings provides us with further information about the early Ibadis' theological views; more importantly, however, it also enables us to trace the development of the terminology they used and understand how and why it changed, as well as the intellectual aspects of the Islamic theological debates during the 2nd/8th century. This study successfully establishes that the opinions of this Ibadi school of theology have remained the same from one generation to the next - among the eastern Ibadis in Oman, Yemen and Hadhramawt as well as the western Ibadis in North Africa. It refutes previous speculation which maintained that al Fazari's views were on the decline in Ibadi circles from the middle of the 5th/11th century, since the evidence shows that the precise opposite was the case. In fact, this study shows that his theological teachings were still being followed in the 20th century by the Ibadis in Oman and North Africa.

Rational speculative theology (kalam) in early Islam was represented most distinctly by the theological school of the Mu‘tazila. Founded in Basra in the early 8th century, the school soon became predominant in theological scholarship and discourse and remained so until the early 11th century. The Mu‘tazila held that the basic truths of theology, such as the existence of God and the nature of His attributes and justice, are entirely subject to rational proof without the benefit of scriptural revelation. Only after these basic truths have been established can the veracity of scripture be proved by reason, and the primacy of reason must also maintained in the interpretation of scripture. Mu‘tazili theology naturally appealed to rationally inclined theologians of other scriptural religions and provided a suitable basis for inter-faith communication in the Islamic world. In Judaism Mu‘tazili thought was adopted to varying degrees from the 9th century on and reached a peak during the tenth century. The Mu‘tazili world view and rational theology was facing increasing competition and criticism from philosophy of Greek origin, which claimed to provide the only scientific world view based on cogent logical demonstration independent of religious beliefs. Study of the philosophical sciences was mostly shunned in religious scholarship, but was an integral part of the education of the medical profession. Among Qadi ‘Abd al-Jabbar’s disciples in Rayy was for some time a young physician trained in the philosophical sciences, Abu l-Husayn al-Basri (d. 1044), who challenged some of his teaching in his lectures and went on to compose a massive critical review of the arguments and proofs used in kalam. His theological works were generally ignored among the Mu‘tazila and handed down among students of medicine. Only a century later his teaching was revived and espoused by the Mu‘tazili scholar Mahmud b. al-Malahimi in Khorezm in Central Asia and gained recognition as a school of Mu‘tazili theology. The present study presents evidence that Abu l-Husayn’s theology was immediately registered and controversially debated in the Karaite community under the Fatimid caliphate. The study is based on source material preserved in Genizahs and now dispersed in libraries around the world.

The aim of this volume is to explore different issues of Ibadi theology from the early beginnings until the present day. Ibadi Islam emerged in the early Islamic period and played a pivotal role in the development of Islamic law and theology. Today, it continues to be an influential force in the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. Despite its antiquity, Ibadi Islam and particularly Ibadi theology remains little known and has often been misunderstood. Up to now only few prominent book-length works devoted to Ibadi theology in European language; this volume aims at redressing this gap by introducing the distinctive theological teachings of this influential Islamic school to a broad public, specialists and non-specialists alike. Dealing with a series of cases, from different periods and different sources and using an interdisciplinary approach, the authors address questions such as dogma and creed, conception of faith, theological controversies, reassessment of theological sources, the Ibadi "modernism" in last century Oman and North Africa. Medieval Ibadi sources are crucial to understand the early development of the movement and the doctrinal and political disputes which differentiate Ibadi doctrine from Sunni Islam, on the other hand the volume emphasise the importance of also focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries Ibadi sources, when the Ibadi reform movement started looking for reconciliation between Islam and modernity.

"Imam Muhammad al-Baqir was one of the most erudite Muslims of his age, and played a significant role in the history of early Islam. At once a versatile leader and scholar in the eighth-century Muslim world, he was also an authority on the exegesis of the Qur'an, the traditions of the Prophet, and all matters relating to the rites, rituals and practice of Islam. Using hitherto largely ignored Shi'i sources, both published and unpublished, Arzina Lalani explores al-Baqir's pivotal contributions to Islamic thought in its early formative period, contributions that were powerfully to affect developments in Shi'a law, theology and religious practice. Dr. Lalani's work presents the first systematic account of the life, career and teachings of this brilliant eighth-century luminary."--Bloomsbury Publishing.

This study presents, in Arabic original and in a close English translation, one of the earliest statements of the fundamentals of the faith of the Ibadiyya movement of Islam. Although in continuous existence since the earliest decades following the death of the Prophet Muhammad, adherents to this belief system have generally not played major political or military roles in the history of the Arab world. Their faith has, as a consequence, received remarkably little attention from scholars both Muslim and Western. The work entitled Kitab Usul al-din is an important Ibadi theological treatise. Its author, Tibghurin b. Dawud b. 'Isa al-Malshuti, native of the Djabal Nafusa (Libya), lived in the second half of the fifth century (12th century BCE). This author enjoys a very high reputation among the Ibadi community of the Maghrib. Indeed, the Kitab Usul al-din has been the subject of many commentaries and glosses, and the main questions of Muslim theology are addressed. The book aims to highlight the foundations (usul) of religion from which, according to the author, the community has divided into rival "paths" and divergent sects. The order followed is that of the great questions of Muslim theology and, for the first ten questions, the five theses: tawhid, 'adl, wa'id and wa'id, manzila, amr and nahy. The Quran is the basis of Tibghurin's argument. There is no chapter where it is not quoted abundantly (in total 247 citations). The unity of Tibghurin's book is based on the fundamental principle of tawhid (divine oneness) from which all articles of faith flow and tanzih (dissimilarity of God and the creature), as well as on original fidelity to ijma'. The credo of Tibghurin offers, in continuity with that of his predecessors, through a structured and balanced treaty, a global view of Ibadi theology of his time, on the basis of solid scriptural and rational argumentation.

Assessing materials from the 3rd/9th century to the 10th/16th century, Professor Abrahamov focuses on the foundations of both traditionalism and rationalism, the arguments which the two tendencies used against each other and the compromises reached.

Ramon Harvey revisits the Muslim theologian Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) from Samarqand and puts his system, and that of the Māturīdī school, into lively dialogue with modern thought to show that a contemporary Muslim philosophical theology (kalām jadīd) can provide original and constructive answers to perennial theological questions.