Theological Stances

Hasan al-Basri. Was a Muslim preacher prominently known after the prophets, his piety and summons made him very famous. On one occasion he responded to a query by Caliph Abdalmalik who sought a clarification on the issue of whether human actions are predetermined by God’s decree It is in his letter in response to this querry that his theological stance was known, He asserts that God is not responsible for a sinner’s action but instead the sinner should take full responsibility of his own actions without issuing of excuses.Al-Ash’ari’s theological Stance on the other hand extensively highlights several issues in a wider and deeper way, Abul-Hasan al-Ashari was a pupil of al-jubbai, he was a against the issue of constraining of Gods power under the rubrics of reason and justice (Ritter & Hoffman, 1933). In his doctrines, he accepts the anthropomorphic characteristics of God that have been mentioned in the Quran. These require insists that God is the ultimate author of all human actions.

Al-Ash’ari’s theological stances are evident in the Al-ibana an usul al-diyana and the Kitab al-luma fil-radd ala ahl al-zaygh wal-bida.Ashari believes that creation has a maker who made it and a governor wisely ordered it by giving the reference to a mature man who was originally semen, then a clot, then a small lump, flesh, bone and blood (McCarthy, 1953). At the peak of the mature man’s physical and mental maturity, he is unable to produce hearing and sight for himself, which signifies that he was being provided by God.He further stresses that; the creator is not as the creatures since the creatures are temporary produced .The creator is only one because if there were two creators the Heavens and the Earth would be in disorder. The creator is knowing because he created the man who is an embodiment of wise organization, such as life, hearing, sight and the ways in which food is distributed in the man’s body.

This is further Evidenced by the completeness and perfection in the firmament’s sun, its moon, its stars and their courses.He further believes that if the creator had no defects that can prevent his perceiving audible and visible things then he must be hearing and seeing and cannot be subjected to ailments such as deafness and blindness.According to Ashari, the proof that God has a power and life is as if the proof that God has a knowledge hence it is justified that God is Knowledgeable. He holds that God has been ever speaking and that the speech of God is uncreated, He proofs this by referring to the Quran which is God’s speech and that it is impossible that God’s speech be spoken to.On the divine willing and its embracing all temporally produced things Ashari maintains that God’s that God’s wills everything which can be willed because the divine willing is one of God’s essential attributes and that since God is the creator of everything which begins to beand and therefore he cannot create what he does not will.

Ashari claims that the acquisitions of creatures are created by God because an act does not come to be as it really is unless someone produces it. On the issue of the imamate Ashari say that people are divided into three classes first there are those with the idea of imamate of Ali after the apostle, this group forms the “Shia”, secondly are those of the imamate of Abbas and thirdly those of the idea of the imamate of Abu Bakr.In conclusion, the comparison between the two theological stances of Al-Ash’ari’s and Al-Ash’ari’s yields shows that the later was mainly concerned with God and his creation while Al-Ash’ari’s focus was narrow and mainly on the man and his relation to God.