A Holistic Approach to Some Koranic Comments of al-Ash’ari on Will Cover Image

Eş’arî’nin İrade Konusunda Yorumladığı Bazı Ayetlere Bütüncül Bir Bakış
A Holistic Approach to Some Koranic Comments of al-Ash’ari on Will

Author(s): Faruk Görgülü
Subject(s): Theology and Religion, Islam studies
Published by: Anadolu İlahiyat Akademisi
Keywords: al-Ashari; will; action; theory of kasb; freedom;

Summary/Abstract: RAl-Ashari was undoubtedly one of the leading scholars who played an important role in the growth of Islamic culture and thought in the early 4th century hegira. A lot of criticism has been directed against al-Ashari himself and the Ashari school by Islamic as well as Western scholars. It has been claimed that the Ash’ari teology school contributed greatly to the spread of a strong pre-determinist perception of fate (al-Cabriyya) among Muslim societies. In this article, while examining al-Ashari’s opinions about will and his comments of Quranic verses, we usually look at the context from which his comments were made. While al-Ashari has agreed that human action has an existence, he could not take up a clear position about human’s role in his action. As a consequence of his overreaction against Mutazila, he made statements which amounted to restricting human’s freedom of action and stripped human of his power to choose his actions.

  • Issue Year: 2015
  • Issue No: 31
  • Page Range: 129-146
  • Page Count: 18
  • Language: Turkish