The following are some of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi's key ideas and beliefs as expressed in his tome Kitab at-Tawheed.
-He believed that the attributes of essence and the attributes of act were both eternal and subsisting in the divine essence, in contrast to the Mu'tazilites and al-Ash'ari.
-Al-Maturidi taught that takwin, the act of bringing something into existence, was distinct from mukawwan, the existing things. This became controversial with the Ash'ari school of aqeedah.
-While the Muslims do see Allah in the afterlife, they do not "grasp" him with their bodily eyes.
-The speech of Allah is an eternal attribute, but it can not be heard. He agreed with the Mu'tazila in interpreting Surah 4:165 as meaning that Allah created a voice which Moses could hear.
-Al-Maturidi defined faith (iman) as intellectual assent expressed by verbal confession.
-One big issue in Islamic theology is the question of how Allah's attribute of creating is eternal, while the creation is not eternal. Here is al-Maturidi's response to this question:
"We respond to him that this is because God brings things into existence as they are supposed to be. Similar to this is His Qudra (power over things) and His Will for them, as well as His Knowledge about them - in such a way that everything occurs at its proper time. Creatio ex Nihil is viewed in the sense of what it will be’ and not of the knowledge about it, despite the fact that neither the knowledge of existing things nor the power over them are changed. The core principle of this issue is that if God is described by an Attribute [such as His Power and Knowledge] it necessitates that these are attributed to Him pre-eternally. On the other hand, if the thing is mentioned together with Him using a description that is similar to His, such as, ‘the thing known’ [by His Knowledge], ‘the thing decreed’ [by His Power], ‘the thing willed’ [by His Will] or ‘the thing originated’ [by His Origination], one would need to indicate when these things were created, so that there is no confusion by applying pre-eternity to them" (Abu Mansur al-Matridi, Kitab at-Tawheed (The Book of Monotheism): A Manual of Sunni Theology, pg. 94)
-Another big issue is the Islamic texts which speak about Allah sitting on the throne. This issue has been hotly debated amongst the different Muslim sects. A big problem has been that it would seem that putting Allah in a location (such as "seated on his throne [arsh]") is at the same time ascribing dimensional limitations to him. Here is who al-Maturidi discussed this particular question:
"In terms of ascribing particular things to God, it comes from the notion that God 1s showing [the thing] respect and favouring it, in terms of nobility, dignity and superiority”’ such as we find [in the following verse of the Holy Quran;] ‘God is with those who are conscious of Him and [the ascription to God such as when God] said ‘that is the mosque of God", ‘the camel of God of the house of God etc. Similarly, people’s relation to each other is also conceived in this way. We do not discount the possibility that accrediting creation to God can have the same implication as accrediting specific creation to another specific creation, it can imply that one is showing his favour towards another" (Kitab at-Tawheed, pgs. 137-138)
No comments:
Post a Comment