Traditionalist theology (Islam)

Several terms are used to refer to traditionalist theology. They are used inconsistently and some of them have been subject to criticism.

The term traditionalist theology is derived from the word "tradition" in its technical meaning as translation of the Arabic term hadith.[10] This term is found in a number of reference works.[11] It has been criticized by Marshall Hodgson (who preferred the term Hadith folk)[12] for its potential for confusion between the technical and common meanings of the word "tradition".[13] Oliver Leaman also cautions against misinterpreting the terms "traditionalists" and "rationalists" as implying that the former favored irrationality or that the latter did not use hadith.[14] Some authors reject the use of these terms as labels for groups of scholars and prefer to speak of "traditionalist" and "rationalist" tendencies instead.[15] Racha el Omari has used "traditionalist theology" in a way that includes Ash'arism and Maturidism.[16]

The term traditionism has also been used in the same sense,[17] although Binyamin Abrahamov reserves the term "traditionists" for scholars of hadith, distinguishing it from traditionalism as a theological current.[18]

Since the overwhelming majority of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence has adhered to traditionalist theology, some sources refer to it as Hanbali theology.[19] However, others note that some Shafi'i scholars also belonged to this theological movement, while some Hanbalites adopted a more rationalist theology.[20]

Athari (from the Arabic word athar, meaning "remnant" or "narrative") is another term that has been used for traditionalist theology.[21]

The term ahl al-hadith (people of hadith) theology is used by some authors in the same sense as athari,[22] while others restrict it to the early stages of this movement,[23] or use it in a broader sense to denote particular enthusiasm towards hadith.[24]

Some authors refer to traditionalist theology as classical Salafism or classic Salafiya (from salaf, meaning "(pious) ancestors").[25] Henri Lauzière has argued that, while the majority Hanbali creed was sometimes identified as "salafi" in classical-era sources, using the corresponding nouns in this context is anachronistic.[26]

Traditionalist theology emerged toward the end of the 8th century CE among scholars of hadith who held the Quran and authentic hadith to be the only acceptable sources of law and creed.[5] At first these scholars formed minorities within existing religious study circles, but by the early ninth century they coalesced into a separate traditionalist movement (commonly called ahl al-hadith) under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Hanbal.[5][27] In legal matters, these traditionalists criticized the use of personal opinion (ra'y) common among the Hanafi jurists of Iraq as well as the reliance on living local traditions by Malikite jurists of Medina.[5] They also rejected the use of qiyas (analogical deduction) and other methods of jurisprudence not based on literal reading of scripture.[5] In matters of faith, traditionalists were pitted against Mu'tazilites and other theological currents, condemning many points of their doctrines as well as the rationalistic methods they used in defending them.[5]

Traditionalists were also characterized by their avoidance of all state patronage and by their social activism.[5] They attempted to follow the injunction of "commanding good and forbidding evil" by preaching asceticism and launching vigilante attacks to break wine bottles, musical instruments and chessboards.[5] In 833 the caliph al-Ma'mun tried to impose Mu'tazilite theology on all religious scholars and instituted an inquisition (mihna) which required them to accept the Mu'tazilite doctrine that the Qur'an was a created object, which implicitly made it subject to interpretation by caliphs and scholars.[28] Ibn Hanbal led traditionalist resistance to this policy, affirming under torture that the Quran was uncreated and hence coeternal with God.[29] Although Mu'tazilism remained state doctrine until 851, the efforts to impose it only served to politicize and harden the theological controversy.[30]

The next two centuries saw an emergence of broad compromises in both law and creed within Sunni Islam. In jurisprudence, Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali madhhabs all gradually came to accept both the traditionalist reliance on the Quran and hadith and the use of controlled reasoning in the form of qiyas.[31] In theology, Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (874-936) found a middle ground between Mu'tazilite rationalism and Hanbalite literalism, using the rationalistic methods championed by Mu'tazilites to defend most tenets of the traditionalist doctrine.[6] A rival compromise between rationalism and traditionalism emerged from the work of al-Maturidi (d. c. 944), and one of these two schools of theology was accepted by members of all Sunni madhhabs, with the exception of most Hanbalite and some Shafi'i scholars, who ostensibly persisted in their rejection of kalam, although they often resorted to rationalistic arguments themselves, even while claiming to rely on the literal text of scripture.[6]

Although the scholars who rejected the Ash'ari/Maturidi synthesis were in the minority, their emotive, narrative-based approach to faith remained influential among the urban masses in some areas, particularly in Baghdad.[32] Its popularity manifested itself repeatedly from late ninth to eleventh centuries, when crowds shouted down preachers who publicly expounded rationalistic theology.[33] After caliph al-Mutawakkil suspended the rationalist inquisition, Abbasid caliphs came to rely on an alliance with traditionalists to buttress popular support.[33] In the early 11th century the caliph al-Qadir made a series of proclamations that sought to prevent public preaching of rationalistic theology.[34] In turn, the Seljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk in the late 11th century encouraged Ash'ari theologians in order to counterbalance caliphal traditionalism, inviting a number of them to preach in Baghdad over the years. One such occasion led to five months of rioting in the city in 1077.[34]

While Ash'arism and Maturidism are often called the Sunni "orthodoxy", traditionalist theology has thrived alongside it, laying rival claims to be the orthodox Sunni faith.[8] In the modern era it has had a disproportionate impact on Islamic theology, having been appropriated by Wahhabi and other traditionalist Salafi currents and spread well beyond the confines of the Hanbali school of law.[9]

Sixteenth-century Sunni scholar Ibn Hajar al-Haytami denounced Athari views associated with Ibn Taymiyyah.[52] The dogmatic and anti-rationalistic positions of traditionalist theology was also related to the source on which Islamist thoughts are based on.[53]

• Abrahamov, Binyamin (2014). "Scripturalist and Traditionalist Theology". In Sabine Schmidtke (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Belo, Catarina (2014). "Theology". In Ibrahim Kalin (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Science, and Technology in Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Berkey, Jonathan Porter (2003). The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800. Cambridge University Press (Kindle edition).
• Berkey, Jonathan Porter (2010). "Islam". In Robert Irwin (ed.). The New Cambridge History of Islam. Volume 4: Islamic Cultures and Societies to the End of the Eighteenth Century. Cambridge University Press.
• Blankinship, Khalid (2008). Tim Winter (ed.). The early creed. The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology. Cambridge University Press (Kindle edition).
• Brown, Jonathan A.C. (2009). Hadith: Muhammad's Legacy in the Medieval and Modern World. Oneworld Publications (Kindle edition).
• Brown, Jonathan A.C. (2009b). "Salafism". Oxford Bibliographies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• El Omari, Racha (2013). "Theology". In Gerhard Böwering, Patricia Crone (ed.). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought. Princeton University Press.
• Laoust, Henri (1986). "Hanabila". In P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. 3 (Second ed.). Brill.
• Halverson, Jeffry R. (2010). Theology and Creed in Sunni Islam: The Muslim Brotherhood, Ash'arism, and Political Sunnism. Springer (Google Play edition).
• Hodgson, Marshall G. S. (2009). The Venture of Islam, Volume 1: The Classical Age of Islam. University of Chicago Press (Kindle edition).
• Hoover, Jon (2014). "Ḥanbalī Theology". In Sabine Schmidtke (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Lapidus, Ira M. (2014). A History of Islamic Societies. Cambridge University Press (Kindle edition). ISBN 978-0-521-51430-9.
• Leaman, Oliver (2008). Tim Winter (ed.). The developed kalām tradition. The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology. Cambridge University Press (Kindle edition).
• Lucas, Scott C. (2005). "Theology". In Josef W. Meri (ed.). Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge.
• Leaman, Oliver (2009). "Ahl al-Ḥadīth". In John L. Esposito (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Shahin, Emad el-Din (2009). "Salafīyah". In John L. Esposito (ed.). The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• El Shamsy, Ahmed (2008). Tim Winter (ed.). The social construction of orthodoxy. The Cambridge Companion to Classical Islamic Theology. Cambridge University Press (Kindle edition).
• Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press.