ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books A History of Muslim Philosophy Volume 1, Book 3 Chapter 11: Ash’arism Ash’arism by M. Abdul Hye, M.A, Ph.D, Professor of Philosophy, Government College, Rajshahi (Pakistan) Al-Ashari’s Life and Work Asharism is the name of a philosophico‑religious school of thought in Islam that developed during the fourth and fifth/tenth and eleventh centuries.

This movement was “an attempt not only to purge Islam of all non‑Islamic elements which had quietly crept into it but also to harmonize the religious consciousness with the religious thought of Islam.” It laid the foundation of an orthodox Islamic theology or orthodox Kalam , as opposed to the rationalist Kalam of the Mu'tazilites; and in opposition to the extreme orthodox class, it made use of the dialectical method for the defence of the authority of divine revela­tion as applied to theological subjects.

The position at the end of the third/ninth century was such that the deve­lopment of such a movement as orthodox Kalamwas inevitable.

The rational­ization of faith, which developed, at the beginning of the second century of the Hijrah as a systematic movement of thought, in the name of rationalism in Islam or Mu'tazilite movement, was, in its original stage, simply an attempt to put Islam and its basic principles on a rational foundation, by giving a consistent rational interpretation to the different dogmas and doctrines of Islam.

But when the Mu'tazilite rationalists began to study the Arabic translations of the works of Greek physicists and philosophers made available to them by the early 'Abbasid Caliphs, particularly by al‑Mansur and al‑Mamun, they began to apply the Greek philosophical methods and ideas to the inter­pretation of the basic principles of Islam as well. Some of the early 'Abbasid Caliphs, particularly al‑Mamun, began to patronize the rationalism of the Mu'tazilites in public.

The Mu'tazilite specula­tion, in the hands of the later Mu'tazilites, those of the second and third generations, under the influence of Greek philosophy and with the active sup­port and patronage of the Caliphs, tended to be purely speculative and “ab­solutely unfettered, and in some cases led to a merely negative attitude of thought.”[^1] They made reason the sole basis of truth and reality and thus identi­fied the sphere of philosophy with that of religion.

They tried to interpret faith in terms of pure thought.