Ash'arism

Ash'arism (/æʃəˈriː/; Arabic: ٱلْأَشْعَرِيّةُ, romanized: al-Ashʿarīyya) is a school of theology in Sunni Islam named after Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, a Sunni jurist, reformer (mujaddid), and scholastic theologian, in the 9th–10th century. It established an orthodox guideline, based on scriptural authority, rationality, and theological rationalism. It is one of the three main schools alongside Maturidism and Atharism.

Al-Ash'ari established a middle way between the doctrines of the Atharī and Muʿtazila schools of Islamic theology, based both on reliance on the sacred scriptures of Islam and theological rationalism concerning the agency and attributes of God. Ashʿarism eventually became the predominant school of theological thought within Sunnī Islam, and is regarded as the single most important school of Islamic theology in the history of Islam.

The disciples of the Ash'ari school are known as Ashʿarites, and the school is also referred to as the Ashʿarite school, which became one of the dominant theological schools within Sunnī Islam. Ash'ari theology is considered one of the orthodox creeds of Sunnī Islam, alongside the Atharī and Māturīdī.

Amongst the most famous Ashʿarite theologians are al-Nawawi, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, Ibn al-Jawzi, al-Ghazali, al-Suyuti, Izz al-Din ibn 'Abd al-Salam, Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Ibn 'Asakir, al-Subki, al-Taftazani, al-Baqillani, and al-Bayhaqi. Scholars and scientists who were affiliated with the Ash'ari school included al-Biruni, Ibn al-Haytham, Ibn al-Nafis, Ibn Battuta, and Ibn Khaldun. An Islamic philosopher who was particularly attacked by the Ashʿari school is Avicenna, on various accounts, notably his philosophical theology, his logic and his physics.

Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī was born in Basra, Iraq, and was a descendant of Abū Mūsa al-Ashʿarī, which belonged to the first generation of Muhammad's closest companions (ṣaḥāba). As a young man he studied under al-Jubba'i, a renowned teacher of Muʿtazilite theology and philosophy. He was noted for his teachings on atomism, among the earliest Islamic philosophies, and for al-Ashʿarī this was the basis for propagating the view that God created every moment in time and every particle of matter. He nonetheless believed in free will and predestination, elaborating the thoughts of Dirar ibn 'Amr and Abu Hanifa into a "dual agent" or "acquisition" (iktisab) account of free will.^{[page needed]}

While Al-Ashʿarī opposed the views of the rival Muʿtazilite school, he was also opposed to the view which rejected all debate, held by certain schools such as the Zahiri ("literalist"), Mujassimite (anthropotheist), schools for their over-emphasis on taqlid (imitation) in his Istihsan al‑Khaud: But instead, Imam Al-Ash'ari affirmed the ambiguous verses in the Qur'an (such as those about the hand and eyes) without a "how" (modality) and without a meaning (meaning, he consigned the meaning to God), a practice known as tafwid. He also allowed another orthodox way of dealing with the ambiguous verses in the Qur'an called ta'wil (interpretation based on the Arabic language and revelation).

A section of the people (i.e., the Zahirites and others) made capital out of their own ignorance; discussions and rational thinking about matters of faith became a heavy burden for them, and, therefore, they became inclined to blind faith and blind following (taqlid). They condemned those who tried to rationalize the principles of religion as 'innovators'. They considered discussion about motion, rest, body, accident, colour, space, atom, the leaping of atoms, and Attributes of God, to be an innovation and a sin. They said that had such discussions been the right thing, the Prophet and his Companions would have definitely done so; they further pointed out that the Prophet, before his death, discussed and fully explained all those matters which were necessary from the religious point of view, leaving none of them to be discussed by his followers; and since he did not discuss the problems mentioned above, it was evident that to discuss them must be regarded as an innovation.

Ashʿarism became the main school of early Islamic philosophy whereby it was initially based on the foundations laid down by al-Ashʿarī, who founded the Ashʿarite school in the 10th century based on the methodology taught to him by the Kullabi movement that used rational argumentation to defend Sunni creed. However, the Ashʿarite school underwent many developments throughout history, resulting in the term Ashʿarī being extremely broad in its modern usage (e.g., differences between Ibn Furak (d. AH 406) and al-Bayhaqi (d. AH 384)).