Jahm bin Safwan

Jahm ibn Ṣafwān (جَهْم بن صَفْوان) was an Islamic theologian who attached himself to Al-Harith ibn Surayj, a dissident in Khurasan towards the end of the Umayyad period, and who was put to death in 745 by Salm b. Aḥwaz.[1]

Jahm ibn Safwan
Born696 M
Samarkand
Died745 M
Merv
EraIslamic Golden Age
SchoolJahmi
Main interests
Kalam · Philosophy
Notable ideas
Founder of the Jahmi school · Fatalisme
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Biography

Of possible Persian[2] descent, he was born in Kufa, but settled down in Khurāsān in Tirmidh. He learned under al-Ja'd b. Dirham. al-Ja'd b. Dirham was a teacher of the last Umayyad caliph, Marwan II, and is described as a Dahrī and Zindīq.[3] He was the first Muslim reported to have spoken about the createdness of the Qurʾān and reject Abraham's friendship with God and Moses' speaking to Him.[4] The name of Jahm b. Ṣafwān would later be ascribed - possibly spuriously - to the theological movement known as the Jahmiyya (see: Jahmites).[5]

Jahm worked as the assistant to Al-Harith ibn Surayj during the latter's revolt against the Umayyad governor Nasr ibn Sayyar. Jahm was killed during the first attempt to take Merv in 746, though the revolt greatly weakened Umayyad power and indirectly contributed to the success of the Abbasid Revolution.[6]

Teachings

Establishing the positive content of Jahm's doctrines is difficult, as they are reproduced (in an abbreviated form) only in later polemical works that are impossible to verify. However, it is said that he taught that only a few attributes can be predicated to God, such as creation, divine power and action, whilst others such as speech cannot. Therefore, he believed that it was wrong to talk about the eternal word of the Qur'an, since God (according to Jahm) is not a speaker in the first place.[7]

Jahm was a proponent of extreme determinism, according to which a man acts only metaphorically in the same way in which the sun is said to set: according to Jahm, this is a linguistic convention rather than an accurate description, as it is actually God that makes the sun set.[8]

Legacy
See also: Jahmi and Jabriyah

Jahm's doctrines about God and His attributes were taken up in criticisms of the Mu'tazila, who were sometimes called Jahmites by their adversaries. The Mu'tazila believed that the Qur'ān was created, a tenet which agreed with Jahm's recorded view.

Jahm left no writings, but many Muslim scholars wrote about his doctrines and a few modern scholars have written studies of him.[9][10]

Criticism

Contemporary to Him

Muqatil ibn Sulayman, an early commentator on the Qur'an who Sunni Muslims view as the polar opposite of Jahm who went to the other extreme,[11] was a contemporary of Jahm who was particularly critical of him. Between the two men, a heated theological and political debate took place in the mosque of Marw regarding the divine attributes and also two political figures that both men were affiliated with. Each of them ended up writing a book refuting the other, and Muqatil used his political links to get Jahm expelled from Balkh, having him sent to Termez.[12] Muqatil set up a rival movement to the Jahmiyyah known as the Muqatiliyyah, and Sunni Muslims have identified themselves as being between what they view as two extremes (negation and likening of the divine attributes, Ta'til and Tasbih). Muqatil himself was condemned by scholars of his time like Abu Hanifah and Makki Ibn Ibrahim (the teacher of al-Bukhari).[13][12][14]

Abu Hanifah (d. 150 H) also harshly criticised Jahm and this was alongside his criticism of the opposing Muqatiliyyah. In particular Abu Hanifah went as far as declaring Jahm a disbeliever.[15][16][17]

Later Scholars

A theologian by the name of Uthman bin Sa'id ad-Darimi (d. 280 H) (not to be confused with Al-Darimi the author of the Sunnan) also wrote refutations of Jahm and wrote a large refutation of a prominent Jahmite by the name of Bishr ibn Ghiyāth al-Mārisî wherein he declared him a Kafir (a disbeliever).[18] Like Muqatil, Uthman bin Sa'id himself received criticism and there have been scholars who have criticised him as going to the opposite extreme to Jahm, being a Mujassim (anthropomorphist). In particular the Sunni Hadith scholar and ascetic Al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi (d. ~280 H) wrote a response to him.[19][20][21]

Many Hadith scholars wrote refutations of Jahm bin Ṣafwān's doctrines, particularly the Sunni Hadith scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 H) and his students like al-Bukhari (d. 256 H)and Abu Dawud as-Sijistani (d. 275 H).[22] Al-Bukhari adopted the teachings of the traditionalist and scholar of Kalam Ibn Kullab alongside al-Karabisi in matters of creed, who also repudiated the Jahmiyyah. Then later Sunni Kalam theologians continued to criticise him, in particular Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari (d. 324 H) and Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 333 H), and he continued to be mentioned in later Ash'ari and Maturidi heresiology works.[23][24][25][26][27]

See also

References
  1. Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam p.83, Leiden 1974
  2. van Ess, Joseph. "JAHM B. ṢAFWĀN – Encyclopaedia Iranica". www.iranicaonline.org. Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
  3. Abdus Subhan, al-Jahm bin Safwan and his philosophy p.221 in: Islamic Culture 1937, W. Montgomery Watt, Early Discussions about the Qur'ān p.28 in: The Muslim World 1950, al-Dahabi, Mizan al-I'tidal 1:185
  4. W. Madelung, The Origins on the Controversy concerning the Creation of the Qur'ān p.505 in: Orientalia hispanica sive studia F.M. Pareja octogenario dicata, Leiden 1974
  5. W. Montgomery Watt, Encyclopedia of Islam II, q.v. Djahm b. Ṣafwān
  6. G. R. Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islam: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661-750, pg. 108. London: Routledge, 2002. ISBN 9781134550586
  7. Clinton Bennett, The Bloomsbury Companion to Islamic Studies, p 126. ISBN 1441138129
  8. P. W. Pestman, Acta Orientalia Neerlandica: Proceedings of the Congress of the Dutch Oriental Society Held in Leiden on the Occasion of Its 50th Anniversary, 8–9 May 1970, p 85.
  9. Sources on the Jahmiyya are largely tendentious, as is the case with all heresiographies of the past. For modern studies see: Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, Tarikh al-Jahmiyyah wa'l-Mu'tazilah, Yasir Qadhi, and Maqalat al-Jahm ibn Safwan wa Atharuah fi al-Firaq al-Islamiyya.
  10. Richard M. Frank (1965). "The neoplatonism of Ğahm ibn Safwân". Le Muséon (68): 395–424.
  11. Tohe, Achmad. Muqatil ibn Sulayman: A neglected figure in the early history of Qur'ānic commentary. Diss. Boston University, 2015. pp. 12, 34
  12. Sirry, M., 2012. Muqātil b. Sulaymān and anthropomorphism. Studia Islamica, 107(1), pp.38-64.
  13. Ibn Rajab al-Ḥanbalī, Bayān Faḍl ‛ilm al-Salaf ‛alā ‘Ilm al-Khalaf,ed. Muḥammad ibn Nāṣir al-‘Ajmī(Beirūt: Dār al-Bashā’ir al-Islāmiyyah, 2003), p.55
  14. Tohe, Achmad. Muqatil ibn Sulayman: A neglected figure in the early history of Qur'ānic commentary. Diss. Boston University, 2015. pp. 12, 33-34
  15. al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī, Tārīkh, 15/212
  16. Ibn Ḥajar al-‛Asqalānī, Tahdhīb, 10/281
  17. Mamat, M.A., Akib, M.M.M. and Husin, B., 2014. Prinsip-Prinsip Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamaah: Pengenalan dan Terjemahan Melayu Wasiyyah Imam Abu Hanifah. Jurnal Akidah & Pemikiran Islam, pp. 11-12
  18. Refer to: al-Radd 'alā'l-Jahmiyyah and Naqd 'Uthmān b. Sa'îd 'alā al-Mārisî al-Jahmî al-'Anîd fi Iftirā 'alā Allāh fî al-Tawhîd, Riyad 1999
  19. Bin Sadiq al-Hanbali, Yusuf. Hashiyah Al-Muqaffaq 'Ala Luma'ah Al-Muwaffaq. Kuala Lumpur: Apologia PLT, 2020. p. XV
  20. AL-GEYOUSHI, MUHAMMAD IBRAHEEM. "Al-Hakim Al-Tirmidhi: his works and thoughts." Islamic Quarterly 14.4 (1970): 159.
  21. Al-Tirmidhi, Al-Hakim. Ms. جواب كتاب عثمان بن سعيد من الري. Zahiriyyah Library.
  22. They wrote respectively: al-Radd 'alā al-Zanādiqah wa'l-Jahmiyyah and Khaql Af'āl al-'Ibād wa'l-Radd 'alā al-Jahmiyyah wa-Ashāb al-Ta'tîl
  23. Hussain, Mohammed Yusoff. "[en] Al-Ash'ari's Discussion of God's Knowledge." Islāmiyyāt 10 (1989).
  24. Jarullah, Z. H. 1969. Tarikh-i-Mutazila, tr. S. Raees Ahmed Jaffari. Karachi
  25. Stapa, Zakaria. "Kedudukan Pemikiran al-Ash'ari dan al-Maturidi dalam Mazhab Ahli Sunnah Waljamaah/The Position of al-Ash'ari and al-Maturidi's Thoughts in the Ahli Sunnah Waljamaah School." Islamiyyat 33 (2011): 37.
  26. "Ibn Kullāb — Brill". Brill Online Reference Works.
  27. Wahab, Muhammad Rashidi, and Syed Hadzrullathfi Syed Omar. "Peringkat Pemikiran Imam al-Ash’ari Dalam Akidah." International Journal of Islamic Thought 3 (2013): 58-70. "Disebabkan itu, al- Bukhari dalam kebanyakan perkara berkaitan dengan persoalan akidah dikatakan akan mengambil pendapat Ibn Kullab dan al-Karabisi(al-'Asqalani 2001: 1/293)"
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