Part One
The creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah in summary
First Issue: Who al-Ashʿarī Was
Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl al-Ashʿarī, a descendant of the Companion Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī, died in Baghdād in 324 AH. He was raised among the Muʿtazilah and studied under Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī, their leading master in Baṣrah, and he remained upon their creed for about forty years. Then he left them publicly and wrote against them.
The Ashʿarī school that bears his name today follows, in the attributes, a path that al-Ashʿarī himself left in his last books. Al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah is the book in which he stated his final creed, and the texts below are from it.
Part Two
The imams after them
Second Issue: His Declaration: The Creed of Imām Aḥmad
Al-Ashʿarī opened the chapter on the saying of the people of truth with a question: you have rejected the Muʿtazilah, the Qadariyyah, the Jahmiyyah and the others, so tell us what you hold. His answer was: holding fast to the Book, the Sunnah, the reports of the Companions, the Followers and the imams of ḥadīth, and to what Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal said; and opposing whatever opposes it.
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī said in al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah:
قيل له:
قولنا الذي نقول به، وديانتنا التي ندين بها، التمسك بكتاب الله ربنا ﷿، وبسنة نبينا محمد ﷺ، وما روى عن السادة الصحابة والتابعين وأئمة الحديث، ونحن بذلك معتصمون، وبما كان يقول به أبو عبد الله أحمد بن محمد بن حنبل - نضر الله وجهه ورفع درجته وأجزل مثوبته - قائلون، ولما خالف قوله مخالفون؛ لأنه الإمام الفاضل، والرئيس الكامل
If someone says to us: You have rejected the saying of the Muʿtazilah, the Qadariyyah, the Jahmiyyah, the Ḥarūriyyah, the Rāfiḍah and the Murjiʾah, so make known to us the saying that you hold and the religion that you follow — it is said to him: Our saying which we hold, and our religion which we follow, is holding fast to the Book of Allah our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, and to the Sunnah of our Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ, and what is reported from the noble Companions, the Followers and the imams of ḥadīth; to that we hold firmly. And we say what Abū ʿAbd Allāh Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥanbal used to say — may Allah brighten his face, raise his rank and make his reward abundant — and we oppose whatever opposes his saying; for he is the excellent imam and the complete leader
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah, p. 20
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He did not say: what the Kullābiyyah hold, or what the people of kalām hold. He named Aḥmad, the imam of the trial over the Qurʾān, and called him the excellent imam and the complete leader. Whoever claims to follow al-Ashʿarī is bound by this declaration, and must ask himself whether his creed in the istiwāʾ, the Hands and the Highness is the creed of Aḥmad.
Third Issue: The Istiwāʾ in al-Ibānah
Al-Ashʿarī gave the istiwāʾ its own chapter, and answered: Allah rises over His Throne with a rising that befits Him. He brought as proof the verses of ascent: the good word ascends to Him, and Allah raised ʿĪsā to Himself. Then, on the following pages, he refuted the saying that Allah is in every place, and showed that it makes Allah beneath the earth and the things above Him.
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī said in al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah:
إن قال قائل: ما تقولون في الاستواء؟
قيل له: نقول: إن الله ﷿ يستوي على عرشه استواء يليق به من غير طول استقرار، كما قال: (الرحمن على العرش استوى) (٥ /٢٠) ، وقد قال تعالى: (إليه يصعد الكلم الطيب والعمل الصالح يرفعه) من الآية (١٠ /٣٥) ، وقال تعالى: (بل رفعه الله إليه)
Chapter five: mention of the rising over the Throne. If someone says: What do you say about the istiwāʾ? It is said to him: We say that Allah, Mighty and Majestic, rises over His Throne with a rising that befits Him, without a lengthy settling, as He said: {Al-Raḥmān rose over the Throne}; and He, Exalted is He, said: {To Him ascends the good word, and the righteous deed raises it}; and He, Exalted is He, said: {Rather, Allah raised him to Himself}
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah, p. 105
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This is the creed that the later Ashʿarīs denied. They interpreted the istiwāʾ as conquering, and counted being above among the things impossible for Allah, as al-Sanūsī did. The founder of their school argued from the same verses of ascent that Ahl al-Sunnah use.
Fourth Issue: The Masters of Kalām Return to the Way of the People of Ḥadīth
Al-Walīd al-Karābīsī was among the most knowledgeable men of his time in kalām; Ḥusayn al-Karābīsī learned kalām from him. On his deathbed he asked his sons whether they knew anyone more learned in kalām than he, and whether they suspected his judgement. When they said no, he advised them: hold to what the people of ḥadīth are upon, for I have seen that the truth is with them. He gave a sign of it: among them the least of the students corrects the greatest of their scholars, because the authority among them is the text, not the man.
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī reported in Sharaf Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth:
Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā al-Hamadhānī informed us: Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad al-Tamīmī al-Ḥāfiẓ narrated to us: Aḥmad ibn ʿUbayd ibn Ibrāhīm narrated to us: ʿAbd Allāh ibn Sulaymān ibn al-Ashʿath narrated to us: I heard Aḥmad ibn Sinān say: al-Walīd al-Karābīsī was my maternal uncle. When death came to him, he said to his sons: Do you know anyone more knowledgeable in kalām than me? They said: No. He said: Do you suspect me? They said: No. He said: Then I advise you; will you accept it? They said: Yes. He said: “Hold to what the people of ḥadīth are upon, for I have seen that the truth is with them. I do not mean their chiefs, but these ragged ones: do you not see one of them come to the chief among them and show him his error and expose his faults?” Abū Bakr ibn al-Ashʿath said: He was the most knowledgeable of people in kalām after Ḥafṣ al-Fard, and Ḥusayn al-Karābīsī learned kalām from him.
al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Sharaf Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth, pp. 55–56
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Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī, Imām al-Ḥaramayn, the greatest of the later Ashʿarī masters, said at the end of his life that he had roamed through all the sciences of the people and plunged into what they forbade, seeking the truth, and that he had now returned from all of it: hold to the religion of the old women. He meant the plain faith of the common Muslim, who knows that his Lord is above and calls on Him without the arguments of kalām. He ended: woe to Ibn al-Juwaynī.
Ibn al-Jawzī said in Talbīs Iblīs:
And Abū al-Maʿālī al-Juwaynī used to say: I roamed through the people of Islam and their sciences, I rode the greatest ocean and plunged into what they had forbidden, all of it in search of the truth and in flight from blind following. And now I have returned from all of it to the word of truth: hold to the religion of the old women. If the truth does not reach me with the gentleness of His kindness, I will die upon the religion of the old women, and the end of my affair at my departure will be sealed with the word of sincerity. Woe to Ibn al-Juwaynī.
Ibn al-Jawzī, Talbīs Iblīs (al-Munīriyyah), p. 84
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الناس ومخالفة العقل أسقطوا فائدة الإثبات وهي الخشية والمراقبة وهدموا سياسة الشرع فهم شر طائفة على الإسلام.
قال المصنف: قلت وتبع أبو عبد الله بن كرام فاختار من المذاهب أردأها ومن الأحاديث أضعفها ومال إلى التشبيه وأجاز حلول الحوادث في ذات الباري ﷾ وقال إن الله لا يقدر على إعادة الأجسام والجواهر إنما يقدر على ابتدائها قالت السالمية إن الله ﷿ يتجلى يوم القيامة لكل شيء في معنا فيراه الآدمي آدميا والجني جنيا وقالوا الله سر لو أظهره لبطل التدبير.
قال المصنف: قلت أعوذ بالله من نظر وعلوم أوجبت هذه المذاهب القبيحة وقد زعم أرباب الكلام أنه لا يتم الإيمان إلا بمعرفة من رتبوه وهؤلاء على خطأ لأن الرسول ﷺ أمر بالإيمان ولم يأمر ببحث المتكلمين ودرجة الصحابة الذين شهد لهم الشارع بأنهم خير الناس على
ذلك وقد ورد ذم الكلام على ما قد أشرنا إليه وقد نقل إلينا أقلاع منطقي المتكلمين عما كانوا عليه لما رأوا من قبح غوائله.
فأخبرنا أبو منصور القزاز نا أبو بكر أحمد بن علي بن ثابت نا أبو منصور محمد بن عيسى بن العزيز البزار ثنا صالح الوفاة بن أحمد بن محمد الحافظ ثنا أحمد بن عبيد بن إبراهيم ثنا عبد الله بن سليمان بن الأشعت قال سمعت أحمد بن سنان قال كان الوليد بن أبان الكرابيسي خالي فلما حضرته الوفاة قال لبنيه تعلمون أحدا أعلم بالكلام مني قالوا لا قال فتتهمونني قالوا لا قال فإني أوصيكم أتقبلون قالوا نعم قال عليكم بما عليه أصحاب الحديث فإني رأيت الحق معهم وكان أبو المعالي الجويني يقول لقد جلت أهل الإسلام جولة وعلومهم وركبت البحر الأعظم وغصت في الذي نهوا عنه كل ذلك في طلب الحق وهربا من التقليد والآن فقد رجعت عن الكل إلى كلمة الحق عليكم بدين العجائز فإن لم يدركني الحق بلطيف بره فأموت على دين العجائز ويختم عاقبة أمري عند الرحيل بكلمة الإخلاص فالويل لابن الجويني وكان
Part Three
Principles drawn from the evidence
Fifth Issue: The Rule of the Apparent Sense in al-Ibānah
Al-Ashʿarī was asked why the two Hands should not be taken as figurative. He answered with a rule of interpretation: the speech of Allah is to be taken according to its apparent sense and its reality, and nothing is taken out of its apparent sense to the figurative except by a proof. A general wording is not made particular without a proof, and a real wording is not made figurative without a proof.
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī said in al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah:
قيل له: حكم كلام الله تعالى أن يكون على ظاهره وحقيقته، ولا يخرج الشيء عن ظاهره إلى المجاز إلا بحجة.
ألا ترون أنه إذا كان ظاهر الكلام العموم، فإذا ورد بلفظ العموم والمراد به الخصوص فليس هو على حقيقة الظاهر، وليس يجوز أن يعدل بما ظاهره العموم عن العموم بغير حجة
Question. If someone says: What do you reject in His saying, Exalted is He, {of what Our Hands have made}, and His saying, Exalted is He, {for what I created with My two Hands}, being figurative? It is said to him: The rule of the speech of Allah, Exalted is He, is that it be taken according to its apparent sense and its reality, and a thing is not taken out of its apparent sense to the figurative except by a proof. Do you not see that when the apparent sense of speech is general, and it comes with a general wording while what is meant by it is particular, then it is not upon the reality of the apparent sense; and it is not permissible to turn what is apparently general away from generality without a proof
Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah, p. 139
Source, chain and authenticity
This is the rule of Ahl al-Sunnah in the attributes, stated by the man whose name the later school carries. The later Ashʿarīs reversed it: they made taʾwīl the rule wherever the apparent sense of an attribute did not agree with their rational premises, and they called those who kept to the apparent sense misguided.
Part Four
The claims of the opponents and their refutation
“Al-Ibānah is not al-Ashʿarī's book”
The claim
Al-Ibānah was falsely attributed to al-Ashʿarī by the Ḥanbalīs, or was altered by them, so its affirmations do not represent him.
The response
Al-Ibānah was known as al-Ashʿarī's book in the centuries closest to him, and was quoted as his by scholars of his own school. Ibn ʿAsākir, the Ashʿarī historian who wrote a whole book defending al-Ashʿarī against his critics, quoted from al-Ibānah and presented it as al-Ashʿarī's creed. A defender of al-Ashʿarī would not have cited a forgery against his own school.
Its content also agrees with al-Ashʿarī's other works, such as Risālah ilā Ahl al-Thaghr and the section on the creed of the people of ḥadīth in Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn, where he lists their positions and says that he holds them. The claim of forgery arises only because the content contradicts the later school. A book is not rejected because its author disagrees with his followers.
“Whoever takes the istiwāʾ by its apparent sense has gone astray”
The claim
Al-Ghazālī: people split over the istiwāʾ; a group went astray by taking it on its apparent sense, and the one who decisively denied the settling succeeded.
The response
Al-Ghazālī's own words show the distance between the later school and its founder. Al-Ashʿarī said that the speech of Allah is taken on its apparent sense and reality, and that Allah rises over His Throne. Al-Ghazālī said that whoever takes it on its apparent sense has gone astray, and that success belongs to whoever decisively denies it.
Al-Ghazālī said in al-Mankhūl min Taʿlīqāt al-Uṣūl:
People have split into parties over it. A group went astray and took it according to the apparent meaning; others followed them, since they hesitated over it, even if they did not commit to it; and the one who was decisive in denying the settling (istiqrār) has succeeded. If someone hesitates over its general sense and holds to it, he is not to be blamed; and burdening oneself with learning the proofs for denying the settling we do not hold to be obligatory on individuals, but it is obligatory on one person in every region to undertake it, to repel innovations when they arise. So the mutashābih is what has no understood meaning, and that is impossible in a place of obligation; so we know with certainty that this verse was not meant as settling, and there is no ambiguity in it.
al-Ghazālī, al-Mankhūl min Taʿlīqāt al-Uṣūl, p. 251
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He also admitted that the proofs for denying it are not required of the common people, and that it is enough for one man in each region to learn them in order to answer innovation. So the common Muslim, who reads “al-Raḥmān rose over the Throne” and believes it, is in his view hesitating at best and misguided at worst, and the truth is held by a few men trained in kalām. This is the opposite of the religion that the Prophet ﷺ taught to the Bedouin and the slave girl, whom he asked “Where is Allah?”, and whose answer, “in the heaven”, he accepted as faith.
Sources
- Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī, al-Ibānah ʿan Uṣūl al-Diyānah, ed. Fawqiyyah
- Ibn al-Jawzī, Talbīs Iblīs (al-Munīriyyah)
- al-Ghazālī, al-Mankhūl min Taʿlīqāt al-Uṣūl
- al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Sharaf Aṣḥāb al-Ḥadīth