Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari (Notes on Islamic History and Theology)

 

Abu Hasan al-Ashari was born around the year 873 AD in Basran. He studied under a Mu'tazilite scholar, but later on, he abandoned Mu'tazilism and developed the school of the Ash'ariyya. 

There are variant stories of Abu Hasan al-Ashari's conversion. One reports that he saw Muhammad in a vision and was commanded to adhere to true tradition. 

"The chief points on which he opposed the doctrines of the Mu'tazila were:

1) He held that God had eternal attributes such as knowledge, sight, speech, and that it was by these that He was knowing, seeing, speaking, whereas the Mu'tazila said that God had no attributes distinct from His essence.

2) The Mu'tazila said that Qur'anic expressions, such as God's hand and face, must be interpreted to mean 'grace', 'essence' and so on. Al-Ash'ari, whilst agreeing that nothing corporeal was meant, held that they were real attributes whose precise nature was unknown. He took God's sitting on the throne in a similar way.

3) Against the view of Mu'tazila that the Quran was created, al-Ashari maintained that it was God's speech, an eternal attribute, and therefore uncreated.

4) In opposition to the view of the Mu'tazila that God could not literally be seen, since that would imply that He is corporeal and limited, al-Ash'ari held that the vision of God in the world to come is a reality, though we cannot understand the manner of it.

5) In contrast to the emphasis of the Mu'tazila on the reality of choice in human activity, al-Ash'ari insisted on God's omnipotence; everything, good and evil, is willed by God, and He creates the acts of men by creating in men the power to do each act......

7) Al-Ash'ari maintained the reality of various eschatological features, the Basin, the Bridge, the Balance and intercession by Muhammad, which were denied or rationally interpreted by the Mu'tazila.

(Umair Mirza, Encyclopedia of Islam, Vol. 1, pg. 694)

al-Ash'ari was known for employing kalam in defense of orthodox Islamic theology, in contrast to many other Muslims, such as Ibn al-Jawzi, who denied the use of kalam altogether, viewing it as an innovation