Ibn Kullāb
ابن كُلاَّب
Personal
BornUnknown
Died240 A.H. = 854 A.D.[7]
241 A.H. = 855 A.D.
ReligionIslam
EraIslamic Golden Age
RegionAbbasid Caliphate
DenominationSunni[1][2][3]
JurisprudenceShafi'i[4]
CreedAhl al-Hadith[5][6]
Main interest(s)Aqidah, Kalam (Islamic theology)
Notable work(s)Al-Radd 'ala al-Hashwiyya (meaning the 'crammers,' a term also used for the deviant misguided Anthropomorphists)
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

Ibn Kullab (Arabic: ابن كُلاَّب) (d. ca. 241/855) was an early Sunni theologian (mutakallim)[1][2] in Basra and Baghdad in the first half of the 9th century during the time of the Mihna and belonged, according to Ibn al-Nadim, to the traditionalist group of the Nawabit.[Note 1] He is often regarded as the true founder of the Ash'ari madhab. His movement, also called Kullabiyya,[Note 2] merged and developed into Ash'arism, which, along with Maturidism and Atharism (practically: Hanbalism),[Note 3] forms the theological basis of Sunni Islam.[11]

Ibn Kullab headed a group made up of mainly direct and second generation students of Al-Shafi that included Al-Karibisi, Al-Qalanisi, Al-Muhasibi, Al-Bukhari, Abu Thawr and Dawud-al Zahiri.[12] They were known for their extreme criticism of Jahmis, Mu'tazilis, and Anthropomorphists by using rationalistic methods (Kalaam) to defend orthodox creedal points of Sunni Islam.[13] They contradicted the Mu'tazili doctrine of Khalq al-Qur'an (Createdness of the Qur'an) by introducing a distinction between the words of God (Kalam Allah) and its pronunciation.[14]

He was praised by several famous scholars, including Ibn 'Asakir, Taj al-Din al-Subki, Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, Ibn Qadi Shuhba, Jamal al-Din al-Isnawi, Kamal al-Din al-Bayadi in his Isharat al-Maram, Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi in his work Kitab Usul al-Din, al-Shahrastani in al-Milal wa al-Nihal, and al-Kawthari.[15]

Name

Abu Muhammad 'Abdallah ibn Sa'id ibn Kullab al-Qattan al-Basri al-Tamimi.[11]

Life

He belonged to the generation of Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ishaq ibn Rahwayh. His precise year of birth is unknown, but he lived in the period of the 'Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun.

Students

It has been said that Dawud al-Zahiri, Al Bukhari and al-Harith al-Muhasibi learned kalam from him, according to al-Dhahabi in his Siyar A'lam Al-Nubala'.[16] It has been reported also that al-Junayd al-Baghdadi was one of his students.[17]

Books

He has a number of works that are documented such as:

These books are lost, however remnants of them can be found in other works such as Maqalat al-Islamiyyin of Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari. He was also quoted by the early Ash'ari scholars such as Ibn Furak (d. 406H).

Death

He died in 240 AH, or according to some in 241 AH.

See also

Notes

  1. ^ According to Benjamin Jokisch, those who converted to Islam became known as Nawabit (Neophytes) and formed the fundament of the traditionalist opposition in Baghdad.[8] However it was also used by scholars such as al-Jahiz as a term for a group he and other Mu'tazilites grew increasingly worried at for they were seen as more intellectually able than them and had advanced in Kalam. Al-Jahiz confesses that they have been building up a type of solidarity against the Mu'tazila and have become aggressive against them, claiming to have on their side, "the masses, the recluses, the jurists, the hadith people and the ascetics". Wadad al-Qadi notes that all of those who wrote on them, aside from one, were Mu'tazilites or Mu'tazilite sympathisers and that he finds it curious that none of the Muslim heresiographers mention them as a sect, aside from Ibn al-Nadim, who Wadad would hesitate to call a heresiographer. Wadad concludes, "Indeed, under different names, they are still with us today."[9]
  2. ^ The Kullabiyya, a moderate traditionalist movement, which was intended to revive the early Sunni Islam and later on turned into the Ash'ariyya.[8]
  3. ^ In contrast, J. Halverson notes: 'Conversely, when we look at Hanbalism too, we can see quite clearly that it is incorrect to consider Hanbalism and “Atharism” to be synonymous. The works of Hanbalite scholars such as Ibn 'Aqil (d. 1119 CE), Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201 CE), and Najm al-Din al-Tufi (d. 1 316 CE), among a few others, reveal instances of distinctly theological ideas occurring within Hanbalism, making it a far more diverse tradition than one may otherwise suspect. However, the overwhelming majority of Hanbalites did indeed fall firmly within the Athari camp with its unyielding rejection of theology. . . The Atharis can thus be described as a school or movement led by a contingent of scholars (ulama), typically Hanbalite or even Shafi'ite, that retained influence, or at the very least a shared sentiment and conception of piety, well beyond the limited range of Hanbalite communities. This body of scholars continued to reject theology in favour of strict textualism well after Ash'arism had infiltrated the Sunni schools of law. It is for these reasons that we must delineate the existence of a distinctly traditionalist, anti-theological movement, which defies strict identification with any particular madhhab, and therefore cannot be described as Hanbalite.'[10]

References

  1. ^ a b Nathan Spannaus (2019). Preserving Islamic Tradition: Abu Nasr Qursawi and the Beginnings of Modern Reformism. Oxford University Press. p. 147. ISBN 9780190654900.
  2. ^ a b Salim Ayduz; Caner Dagli (2010). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam. Oxford University Press. p. 58. ISBN 9780199812578. Ibn Kullab was a scholar of Ahl al-Sunnat wa-al-Jamaʿah and established the Kullabiya school.
  3. ^ Muhammad Salih al-Ghursi. "منهج الأشاعرة في العقيدة بين الحقائق والأوهام » بيان حال الإمام أبي محمد عبد الله بن كُلاَّب" (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 11 Dec 2022.
  4. ^ Jamil, Khairil Husaini Bin. "Ḥadīth, Piety and Law: Selected Studies." By Christopher Melchert. Atlanta, Georgia: Lockwood Press, 2015. Pp. 359. ISBN 978-1-937040-49-9. (2018): 263-267. "Melchert has proposed several names such as al-Karābīsī, Ibn Kullāb, al-Muḥāsibi, al-Qalānisī and others who were loosely associated with al-Shāfiʿī..."
  5. ^ Laury Silvers (2010). A Soaring Minaret: Abu Bakr al-Wasiti and the Rise of Baghdadi Sufism. State University of New York Press. p. 69. ISBN 9781438431727. Wasiti's position on this matter seem to be in keeping with the early Ahl al-Hadith theologian Ibn Kullab (d. ca. 240/855)
  6. ^ Farid Suleiman (2019). Ibn Taymiyya und die Attribute Gottes (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH. p. 71. ISBN 9783110623277. Diese sind vielmehr – wie der ašʿaritische Doxograph ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baġdādī (gest. 429/1037) sie nennt – die frühen Generationen der spekulativen Theologen unter den Traditionalisten (al-mutaqaddimün min mutakallimi ahl al-hadit);" allen voran Ibn Kulläb (gest. 241/855), aber auch Denker wie al-Muhäsibi (gest. 243/857) und al-Qalänisi (bl. in der zweiten Hälfte des 3./9. Jhs.).
  7. ^ Christopher Melchert (1997). The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law: 9th-10th Centuries C.E. Brill Publishers. p. 69. ISBN 9789004109520.
  8. ^ a b Benjamin Jokisch (2007). Islamic Imperial Law: Harun-al-Rashid's Codification Project. Walter de Gruyter. p. 622. ISBN 9783110190489.
  9. ^ al-Qadi, Wadad (1993). "The Earliest "Nābita" and the Paradigmatic "Nawābit"". Studia Islamica. Brill (78): 51–53, 59, 61. doi:10.2307/1595606. JSTOR 1595606.
  10. ^ Jeffry R. Halverson (2010). Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Sunnism. Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 35–36. ISBN 9780230106581.
  11. ^ a b Benjamin Jokisch (2007). Islamic Imperial Law: Harun-al-Rashid's Codification Project. Walter de Gruyter. p. 357. ISBN 9783110190489.
  12. ^ The Adversaries of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal. Christopher Melchert T. 44, Fasc. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 234-253: "Al-Karabisi's (And Ibn Kullabs) doctrine of the pronunciation was taken up after him by Ahmad al-Sarrak (fl. ca. 240/854-855), Abu Thawr (d. 240/854), Ibn Kullab (d. ca. 240/854-855), al-Harit al-Muhasibi (d. 243/857-858), Dawud al-Zahiri (d. 270/884), and even al-Bukhari (d. 256/870). Indeed, most of the known semi-rationalist Kullabi school were loosely associated with Al-Shafi'i."
  13. ^ Ahmed el-Shamsy. "Canonization beyond the Shāfiʿī School", The Canonization of Islamic Law, Cambridge University Press, pp. 194–220, 2013-10-21, retrieved 2023-08-14
  14. ^ "Ibn Kullāb — Brill". Brill Online Reference Works. 24 April 2012.
  15. ^ Hamad al-Sinan; Fawzi al-'Anjari. "أهل السنة الأشاعرة شهادة علماء الأمة وأدلتهم » شبهة مرور أبي الحسن الأشعري بثلاث مراحل والرد على المرحلتين الأولى والثانية" [Ahl al-Sunna: The Ash'aris - The Testimony and Proofs of the Scholars] (in Arabic). Translated by Abdul Aziz Suraqah. Forewords by: Wahbah al-Zuhayli, Muhammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti, 'Ali Gum'a, 'Ali al-Jifri, and others. Archived from the original on 11 Dec 2022.
  16. ^ al-Dhahabi. Siyar A'lam Al-Nubala'. Islamweb. p. 174.
  17. ^ "İBN KÜLLÂB". islamansiklopedisi.org.tr (in Turkish). İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Archived from the original on 13 Dec 2022.
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Key: Some of Muhammad's CompanionsKey: Taught in MedinaKey: Taught in IraqKey: Worked in SyriaKey: Travelled extensively collecting the sayings of Muhammad and compiled books of hadithKey: Worked in Persia
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