Chapter 5

Theological exposition

An excellent overview and bibliography on the development of Islamic theology is found in Mustafa Shah, “Trajectories in the Development of Islamic Theological Thought: The Synthesis of Kalām,” Religion Compass, 1 (2007), 430–54. The emergence of Islamic theological identity For an overview of the emergence of Islamic theology see Josef van Ess, The Flowering of

Muslim Theology, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 2006. The definition of a Muslim For an excellent overview of the significance of how to define a Muslim see Toshihiko Izutsu,

The Concept of Belief in Islamic Theology, Tokyo, Keio Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies, 1965. The Khawārij On the character of the early Khawārij see G. R. Hawting, “The Significance of the Slogan lā

ḥukma illā lillāh and References to the Ḥudūd in the Traditions about the Fitna and the Murder of ʿUthmān,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , 41 (1978), 453– 63. Also see Paul L. Heck, “Politics and the Qurʾān,” in Jane Dammen McAuliffe (ed.),

Encyclopaedia of the Qurʾān, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 2005, volume 4, pp. 125–51. On the ramifications of the activist position and discussions concerning it between the 8th century and the 11th century see Frank Griffel, “Toleration and Exclusion: al-Shāfiʿī and alGhazālī on the Treatment of Apostates,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African

Studies, 64 (2001), 339–54. According to Griffel, al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) held that Islamic law “must not shy away from the threat posed to the Islamic community by the activities of secret apostates” whereas earlier “it had, in theory at least, been impossible to pass the death penalty on a supposed Muslim apostate who was not willing to die for his convictions.”

The Murjiʾa On the Murjiʾa see Wilferd Madelung, “Early Sunnī Doctrine concerning Faith as Reflected in the Kitāb al-Īmān of Abū ʿUbayd al-Qāsim b. Sallām (d. 224/839),” Studia Islamica, 32 (1970), 233–54, reprinted in his Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval Islam, London, Variorum, 1985, chapter 1; Wilferd Madelung, “The Murjiʾa and Sunnite Traditionalism,” in his Religious Trends in Early Islamic Iran, Albany, NY, Bibliotheca Persica, 1988, pp. 13–25; J. Meric Pessagno, “The Murjiʾa, Īmān and Abū ʿUbayd,” Journal of the American Oriental

Society, 95 (1975), 382–94. For the Fiqh Akbar see A. J. Wensinck, The Muslim Creed: Its Genesis and Historical

Development, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1932, chapter 6. For the Risāla to ʿUthmān al-Battī see John Alden Williams (ed.), Islam, New York, Washington Square Press, 1963, pp. 162–5, although note that the full text has not been translated. Among other important texts attributed to Abū Ḥanīfa but, in fact, written by his pupils, are Abū Muqātil alSamarqandī (d. 823), Kitāb al-ʿĀlim waʾl-Mutaʿallim (see Joseph Schacht, “An Early Murci’ite Treatise: the Kitāb al-ʿĀlim wal-Mutaʿallim,” Oriens, 17 [1964], 96–117) and Abū Muṭīʿ alBalkhī (d. 814), al-Fiqh al-Absaṭ (see A. J. Wensinck, The Muslim Creed: Its Genesis and

Historical Development, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1932, chapter 6, especially p. 123, and Hans Daiber, The Islamic Concept of Belief in the 4th/10th Century:

Abῡ l-Laith al-Samarqandῑ’s Commentary on Abῡ Ḥanῑfa [died 150/767]: al-Fiqh al-Absaṭ, Tokyo, Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, 1995). The Traditionalists The Traditionalist position is enunciated in the writing of Ibn Qutayba (d. 889) as excerpted in Norman Calder, Jawid Mojaddedi and Andrew Rippin, Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of

Religious Literature, London, Routledge, 2003, section 6.3. For a translation of a work by Ibn Ḥanbal, his “Refutation of the Dualists and the Anthropomorphists,” see Morris Seale, Muslim Theology: A Study of Origins with Reference

to the Church Fathers, 2nd edition, London, Luzac, 1980. See Norman Calder, Jawid Mojaddedi and Andrew Rippin, Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of

Religious Literature, London, Routledge, 2003, section 6.1, for an excerpt from Abū ʿUbayd’s treatise on faith.

The Qadariyya On the emergence of the Qadariyya see William Montgomery Watt, The Formative Period of

Islamic Thought, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press, 1973, chapter 4. The problem of free will and predestination On the Umayyad caliphs and their theological positions see Patricia Crone and Martin Hinds,

God’s Caliph: Religious Authority in the First Centuries of Islam, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986, especially chapter 3. The Risāla ascribed to al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī has attracted a good deal of scholarly attention. See Michael Cook, Early Muslim Dogma: A Source-critical Study, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981, chapter 12; for the text itself see Julian Obermann, “Political Theology in Early Islam: Ḥasan al-Baṣrī’s Treatise on Qadar,” Journal of the American

Oriental Society, 55 (1935), 138–62; Michael Schwarz, “The Letter of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī,” Oriens, 20 (1967–9), 15–30; partial translation in Andrew Rippin and Jan Knappert, Textual Sources for the Study of Islam, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1986, section 6.1. On the history of the text itself and its ascription see Suleiman Ali Mourad, Early Islam

between Myth and History: Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110H/728CE) and the Formation of his Legacy in Classical Islamic Scholarship, Leiden, Brill, 2006. The Muʿtazila and the role of reason On the background to the Muʿtazilī style of argumentation see M. A. Cook, “The Origins of Kalām,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 43 (1980), 32–43. The justice of God The work of al-Khayyāṭ is published as: A. N. Nader (ed. and trans.), Kitāb al-intiṣār: Le livre

du triomphe et de la réfutation d’Ibn Rawāndī l’hérétique par Abū al-Ḥusayn b. ʿOthmān al Khayyāṭ le Muʿtazil, Beirut, Editions les lettres Orientales, 1957.

The created Qurʾān For a full discussion of the eternality of the Qurʾān in relationship to Jewish and Christian notions see Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1976, chapter 3. Also see Wilferd Madelung, “The Origins of the Controversy Concerning the Creation of the Koran,” in J. M. Barral (ed.), Orientalia

Hispanica sive studia F. M. Pareja octogenario dicata, vol. 1, part 1, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1974, pp. 504–25, reprinted in his Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval Islam, London, Variorum, 1985, chapter 5. The unity of God For a full discussion of the nature of the attributes of God in relationship to Jewish and Christian notions see Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, Cambridge, MA, Harvard University Press, 1976, chapter 2. The fall of the Muʿtazila On ʿAbd al-Jabbār see George F. Hourani, Islamic Rationalism: The Ethics of ʿAbd al-

Jabbār, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971. For an example of his style of kalām see Norman Calder, Jawid Mojaddedi and Andrew Rippin, Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious

Literature, London, Routledge, 2003, section 6.5. On Muʿtazilite ethical theory and the downfall of the position see George F. Hourani “Divine Justice and Human Reason in Muʿtazilite Ethical Theology,” in Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.),

Ethics in Islam, Malibu, CA, Undena Publications, 1985, pp. 73–83, especially section VII. On the relationship between the Muʿtazila and the Shīʿa see Wilferd Madelung, “Imamism and Muʿtazilite Theology,” in T. Fahd (ed.), Le Shi’isme imamite, Paris, Presses Universitaire de France, 1979, pp. 13–29, reprinted in his Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval Islam, London, Variorum, 1985, chapter 7. Al-Ashʿarī

On al-Ashʿarī see Abu ʾl-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ašʿarī, al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl ad-Diyānah (The

Elucidation of Islām’s Foundation), Walter C. Klein (trans.), New Haven, CT, American Oriental Society, 1940 and ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ašʿarī, The Theology of al-Ashʿarī, Richard J. McCarthy (trans.), Beirut, Imprimerie Catholique, 1953. For an example of how the Ashʿarī position is enunciated in later Islam see the text from alNawawī (d. 1277) translated in Norman Calder, Jawid Mojaddedi and Andrew Rippin,

Classical Islam: A Sourcebook of Religious Literature , London, Routledge, 2003, section 6.2. Al-Māturīdī For an overview of al-Māturīdī and his work see Mustafa Cerić, Roots of Synthetic Theology

in Islām: A Study of the Theology of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944), Kuala Lumpur, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 1995. Also see J. Meric Pessagno, “Irāda, Ikhtiyār, Qudra, Kasb: the View of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī,” Journal of the American

Oriental Society, 104 (1984), 177–91. On the importance of Māturīdī thought to the spread of Islam see Wilferd Madelung, “The Spread of Māturīdism and the Turks,” in Actas: IV Congresso de Estudos Árabes e

Islāmicos: Coimbra-Lisboa 1968, Leiden, E. J. Brill, 1971, pp. 109–68, reprinted in his Religious Schools and Sects in Medieval Islam, London, Variorum, 1985, chapter 2. The role of theological writing The creed of al-Nasafī is translated in Arthur Jeffery (ed.), A Reader on Islam. Passages

from Standard Arabic Writings Illustrative of the Beliefs and Practices of Muslims , ’sGravenhage, Mouton, 1962, pp. 347–52; for a commentary on it from the perspective of the Ashʿarī school see the work of al-Taftazānī (d. 1390) as found in Earl Edgar Elder (trans.), A

Commentary on the Creed of Islam, New York, Columbia University Press, 1950, and the excerpt in Norman Calder, Jawid Mojaddedi and Andrew Rippin, Classical Islam: A

Sourcebook of Religious Literature , London, Routledge, 2003, section 6.6.