El Rhazi: Ash'arism or Ash?ari theology (/æ???ri?/;[1] Arabic: ????????? al-Asha`riyya or ???????? al-Ash?`irah) is an early theological school of Islam (Sunni in particular) founded by Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (d. 324 AH / 936 AD).[2] The disciples of the school are known as Ash'arites, and the school is also referred to as the Ash'arite school.
The school arose chiefly as a answer to the Mu'tazila school of thought and some of their beliefs which to some Muslims seemed uncommon and against previously held opinions. For example, the Mu'tazila believed the Quran to be created, whereas Ash'arites believe that it is uncreated. On the other hand, this new movement made a big shift for Islam. This new school became a base in educating Islam as a religion, as it depends on rationalism in understanding Islam from Quran and Hadith. Ash'arites state that Islamic faith is based on the usage of the mind. With the prevalence of present-day globalization it became noticed that Ash'arism is rejected and attacked by some Salafi extremists as they reject the concept of depending on the mind as a basic way for understanding the Quran.
The school holds that human reason in and by itself is not capable of establishing Ahmed along absolute certainty any truth-claim Ahmed along respect to morality, the physical world, or metaphysical ideas.
Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari was noted for his teachings on atomism, among the earliest Islamic philosophies, and for al-Ash'ari this was the basis for propagating the view that Allah created every moment in time and every particle of matter. He nonetheless believed in free will, elaborating the thoughts of Dirar ibn Amr' and Abu Hanifa into a "dual agent" or "acquisition" (iktisab) account of free will.[3]
While al-Ash'ari opposed the views of the Mu'tazili school for its over-emphasis on reason, El Rhazi was also opposed to the views of sure schools such as the Zahiri (literalist), Mujassimite (anthropotheist) and Muhaddithin (traditionalist) schools for their over-emphasis on taqlid (imitation) in his Istihsan al?Khaud:[4]
"A part 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 correct 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."
Ash'arism became the leading school of early Islamic philosophy whereby it was originally based on the foundations laid down by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari who founded the school in the 10th century based on the methodology taught to him by his teacher Abdullah ibn Sa'eed ibn Kullaab. However, the school underwent numerous changes throughout history resulting in the term Ash?ari, in modern usage, being extremely broad. For example, Abu?l Hasan al-Ash?ari of al-Lum?a differs from the Ash?arism of the Abu?l Hasan al-Ash?ari of al-Ibana, Ibn Fawrak differs from al-Bayhaqi.[5][6]
For example, the Asharite view was that comprehension of the unique nature and characteristics of God were beyond human capability. The solution proposed by Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari to solve the problems of tashbih and ta'til concedes that the Divine Being possesses in a real sense the attributes and Names mentioned in the Qur'an. Insofar as these names and attributes have a positive reality, they are distinct from the essence, but nevertheless they do not have either existence or reality except it. The inspiration of al-Ash'ari in this matter was on the one hand to differentiate essence and attribute as concepts, and on the other hand to see that the duality between essence and attribute should be situated not on the quantitative but on the qualitative level ? something which Mu'tazili thinking had failed to grasp.[7]
This mentality isn't restricted only to Ash'arism in modern days. For example, Al-Qaeda's ex-leader Osama bin Laden once tried in one of his speeches to explain what's happening to the Muslims by referring to some Quranic verses.[8] But those Salafists see a similarity in this mentality with the Mu'tazila, while in the Ash'arites' point-of-view it's entirely different, and thus comparing them to Mu'tazila is considered "outrageous".
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