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A brief history of Al Maturidiyyah

Where is Allah? We believe that Allah is above his throne. The Ash’aris however deny that there is any direction or place for Allah (swt), they say that that it is impossible; though they do believe that we will see Allah.

It is because of this that the Mu’tazilah challenged them; if they say that Allah has no direction yet they say that you will see him, then how can you see him without to face his direction? The Asha’ira said that Allah will not have a direction, we will see Allah above, below, to the left and to the right and in every direction. The Mu’tazilah contended that the one who says that Allah has no direction but yet you will see him, is a laughing stock.

Further to the belief of the Asha’ira is that say that the saheeh Hadith Ahad cannot be taken into the Aqeedah but then they build their entire madhab and their usul ul deen, Imaan, Qur’an and the ‘uluw based upon two lines of poetry.

Akhtal, a Christian poet said, “The word is always in the heart, but the tongue is used as an evidence to what is in their heart.” Similarly they say that the word of Allah is implicit not his real word, and the saying of the imaan is only an evidence of what is in the heart.

He also said in another verse, “He controls (istiwa) Iraq without sword and without spilled blood.” They use this to change the meaning of the word ‘istiwa’ from the apparent meaning of Allah’s position over his throne to mean ‘control’.

Among all this confusion between the rationalists came another rationalist sect Al Maturidiyyah.

ABU MANSOOR AL MATURIDI

The sect of the Maturidiyyah comes from Imam Abu Mansoor Al Maturidi. The sect is a rationalist sect attributed to Al Maturidi. Their source of Usul ul Deen is ration and they take the text as second after that.

Al Maturidiyyah was established in order to counter other groups (i.e. the Mu’tazilah and the Ash’aris) though it was not called Al Maturidiyyah until after his death.

He died in 333 AH, he was Abu Mansoor Muhammad bin Muhammad ibn Mahmoud Al Maturidi Al Samarqandi, Maturid is a place near Samarqand and he was born there although no one really knows the exact year of his birth. This is an important observation as it means that those who made isnad do not know enough information about him to take him as a narrator; it means that no Alim ever made tarjamah for him.

Furthermore, Sheikh Nusayr bin yahya Al Balkhie (hanafi) d.368 AH was the only sheikh that has been attributed to him, from which he apparently learnt all the fiqh of Abu Hanifah, though some do claim that he studied from other Hanafi scholars as well - Al Jawzani and his brother as well as Abu Nasr Al Ayaad, .

Al Imam Abu Mansoor Al Maturidi was described in the book, Al Fath Al Mubin (the clear opening on the levels of the usulis),

“Abu Mansoor used to have strong arguments, used to convince everybody, he used to defend the aqeedah of the Muslims …”

He was someone who referred a lot to the ration and from their own sayings, they give him titles of comprehending, though as far as can be verified he does not even have enough scholars. They say, “he stands hard against the Mu’tazilah” though he was so incredibly close to them in using the ration with the text. He would rationally try to prove the existence of Allah to himself and other, but if he didn’t know that Allah exists before he followed the Qur’an, he would be punished by Allah (swt).

Abu Mansoor had a lot of debates with all scholars who disagreed with him, he debated a lot with the mu’tazilah and united with the asha’irah against them. There is no evidence that he met Imam Abu Hasan Al Ash’ari himself, but their students did meet eachother.

They had the biggest clash against the Ahl Al Hadith and he began to support the Ahl Al Hadith, he witnessed the biggest massacres between Ahl Al Hadith and Ahl Al Kalaam.

Something more about Imam Abu Mansoor Al Maturidi is that he wrote a lot of books, however he does not have enough scholars to back them up. He died and was buried in Samarqand.

He was strong, he was known as one of the ulemah, Abu Hasan Al Nadawi said,

“Abu Mansoor Al Maturidi was one of the most renowned scholars of the human thought, he was known to be clever, shrewd and skilled in all of the arts.” [Rijal Al Fikr wal Da’wah]

He was in the same time of Abu Hasan Al Ash’ari, though there is no evidence that they met eachother, rather it is reported that they debated and communicate via letter and via their students (although there is no proof that they actually communicated by letters.)

He had many books including, “ Usul ul Fiqh ”, “ Tafseer ”, “ Ta’weel ” he used to attack the jahmies and one of his famous books is known as “ Kitab ul Tawheed ”

However in his Kitab ul Tawheed , there is no mention of Tawheed Al Uluhiyyah, it is purely speaking about Al Rububiyyah and many of the things he spoke about is related only to tanzeeh.

AL MATURIDIYYAH

After he died, His ideas progressed from 333AH to 500AH in the stage of his students who wrote many books following him in his aqeedah and following the fiqh of Abu Hanifah. His main students included Imam Abul Qasim Ishaq bin Muhammad bin Ismail Al hakim Al Samarqandi (d.342 AH) known as Abul Qasim Al Hakeem, and also Abu Muhammad Abdul Kareem bin Musa bin Isa Al Bazdawi (d. 390 AH) known as Al Bazdawi.

After this, was the stage of Al Maturidiyyah with Abul Yusr Al Bazdawi (b.421AH - d. 493 AH), he was known as Muhammad bin Muhammad bin husayn bin Abdul kareem Al Bazdawi, he is known as the sheikh of the ahnaf after his older brother.

After that he became the Sheikh Al Hanafiyyah, which he learnt from his father who took from his grandfather who was the student of Abu Mansoor. He also learnt from many scholars of the Mu’tazilah, he learned the philosophical books of Al Kandi, after which, he condemned and wrote that no one should read the books of Abu Hasan Al Ash’ari because it will confuse everyone, instead he found the book of Abu Mansoor Al Maturidi on Al Ta’weel to be correct and based his book on that. Abu Yusr Al Bazdawi died in Bukhara in 493 AH.

The final era was the writing and compilation of the aqeedah of Al Maturidiyyah from 500AH onwards. It was continued firstly with Abul Mu’een Al Nasafi (b.438 – d.508 AH) who was between the Maturidiyyah of Baqilaani & ghazali and the ash’aris. He wrote books including “ Kitab Al Tamheed ” which compiles all of his opinions.

After him, Najm Al Deen Al Nasafi (b.462 - d.537AH); he was Najm Al Deen bin Muhammad Al Nasafi, his sheiyoukh reach over 500 men, the most famous being Abul Yusr Al Bazdawi and Abu Isa. Imam Sam’aani said in his biography of Al Nasafi,

“I started to say that he was an Imam qualified and that he compiled all books. But when I visited Samarqand I read some of his books and found it full of illusions and corruption and found he was not able to understand Ilm ul Hadith.”

It should be noted that Najm Al Deen had himself more known shuyoukh than Abu Mansoor Al Maturidi.

After that, Maturidiyyah spread to the madaris of Doubond from 1283AH and in 1272AH maturidiyyah spread to the brelwies. The head of the brelwies was Ahmed Rida Khan, who was Hanafi Maturidi, he is known as ‘the servant of the mustafa’ he died in 1340AH.

The last school is the school of Al Kawthari , also known as Jarkasi (b.1296AH - d.1371). He is the one who cursed all the a’immah of the ummah, and said

“All the books of salaf are books of shirk and we should not read it.”

He is the one who wrote all the books of Imam Abu Mansoor Al Maturidi after that.

This is a brief history of the sect Al Maturidiyyah, where they came from and how they progressed. It is important to appreciate their beginnings because of the widespread confusion caused by their beliefs in the world today. We should also note that their basis for all arguments has beginnings in the ration and is not based on the islamic Standard, the sahabah of Muhammad (saw). Ahl Al Sunnah Wal Jama’ah do not deviate at all from the path of sahabah of Muhammad (saw) whether in aqeedah or fiqh, this understanding is not shared by Al Maturidiyyah. 

From alghurabaa.co.uk