{"collection":"Texts of Islam","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_isl_isl32_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_isl_isl32_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_isl_isl_isl32_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/isl/isl32.htm","summary":"This is a scholarly excerpt on medieval Islamic theology, drawn from translated primary sources (al-Ash'ar\u012b's *Kit\u0101b al-Ib\u0101na* and *Kit\u0101b al-Luma'*) framed by historical commentary, situating al-Ash'ar\u012b (d. 935 CE) as the founder of a theological school that sought a middle path between Mu'tazil\u012b rationalism and \u1e24anbal\u012b literalism. The central argument is that al-Ash'ar\u012b, a former Mu'tazil\u012b who broke with his teacher over the irreconcilability of that school's doctrines with prophetic tradition, developed kal\u0101m (dialectic theology) to defend traditional Sunn\u012b beliefs \u2014 such as the uncreated Qur'\u0101n, God's eternal attributes, and divine determinism \u2014 using the very logical methods his opponents employed. The text extensively catalogs Mu'tazil\u012b positions that al-Ash'ar\u012b condemned: denial of God's literal attributes (face, hands, eyes), assertion that humans create their own acts, and the claim that the Qur'\u0101n is created \u2014 each framed as dangerous innovation approximating Magianism or polytheism. A notably distinctive doctrinal claim, presented in direct question-and-answer form, is al-Ash'ar\u012b's voluntarist position that God is absolutely unconstrained \u2014 free to torture innocents, punish believers, or reward unbelievers \u2014 and that nothing can be morally evil on God's part because evil only arises from transgressing limits, and God is subject to none. The historical framing notes that Ash'arism ultimately triumphed with Seljuq patronage, the Mu'tazila were suppressed and their books burned, though their ideas survived within Sh\u012b'\u012b theology. Readers interested in Islamic scholasticism, the formation of Sunn\u012b orthodoxy, or debates over divine determinism versus human agency will find this a densely substantive introduction to the theological stakes involved.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"Islam: Chapter Five: Kal\u0101m: The Statements of the Theologians: 3. Al-Ash\u2018ar\u012b","tradition":"Texts of Islam","translated_text":null,"word_count":1935}