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Ibn 'Aqil: Religion and Culture in Classical Islam

by George Makdisi. 298 pgs.

Contributors:

   George Makdisi

Publisher:

   Edinburgh University Press

Place of Publication:

  Edinburgh  

Publication Year:

  1997

Subjects:

Scholars, Muslim--Iraq--Biography

	CONTENTS
	Preface	xiii
	Part One Ibn 'Aqil: His Life and Times
	Section One: The Retraction and the Qadiri Creed
I.	Ibn 'Aqil's Public Retraction of 465/1072
1.	Text of the Retraction	3
2.	Its Witness-Notaries	5
3.	Import and Significance of the Retraction	5
4.	Hanbali Historians and Ibn 'Aqil	6
5.	Hallajism, Mu'tazilism, and Ibn 'Aqil	7
II.	Edicts and Creed of Caliph al-Qadir
1.	Edicts of al-Qadir and Edicts of al-Ma'mun	8
2.	Al-Qa'im's Proclamation of the Qadiri Creed	9
3.	Proximate and Remote Causes for Edicts and Creed	10
4.	Import and Significance of the Qadiri Creed	10
5.	Application of the Creed's Terms	11
III.	Retraction and Qadiri Creed in Western Scholarship
	1. The Retraction	12
	The Retraction Discovered by Ignaz Goldziher	12
	Louis Massignon's Interest in the Retraction	13
	The Retraction in History	14
	The Retraction in Ibn 'Aqil's Life	14
2.	The Qadiri Creed 15
	The Qadiri Creed Discovered by Adam Mez	15
	The Creed Absent from Wensinck's Muslim Creed	15
	The Background of the Qadiri Creed	16
	Section Two: The Biography of Ibn 'Aqil
I.	Birth, Family, and Early Studies: 431-47
1.	Date and Place of Birth	17
2.	Family Background	17
3.	Hanafi-Mu'tazili Origins	18
4.	Two Cultural Forces: Humanism and Scholasticism	19
5.	Maktab-School Studies: To 446 20
II.	Legal Studies and Change of Guild: 447-58
1.	First Year of College in Hanafi Law	21
2.	Turning-Point: Hanbali Patron and Hanbali Guild	21
3.	Legal Studies in the Hanbali Guild	23
III.	Beginning of Professorial Career: 458-60
1.	Professorial Chair in Mosque of al-Mansur	23
2.	Trouble with Sharīf Abu Ja'far	24
3.	Death of Patron-Protector, Abu Mansur Ibn Yusuf	25
IV.	Persecution, Prison, and Retraction: 458-65
1.	Events Reported Prior to the Retraction	29
2.	Negotiations Leading to Exile	36
3.	Long Period of Silence Before the Retraction	41
4.	Legal Basis and Underlying Motive for the Retraction	41
5.	Hallaj and Ibn 'Aqil	43
6.	Mu'tazilism and Ibn 'Aqil	43
V.	Period of Obscurity: 460-70	43
VI.	Resumption of Professorial Career: c.470-c.513
1.	Students of Ḥadīth	44
2.	Students of Law	45
VII.	Ibn 'Aqil in the Judgement of Posterity
1.	Silafi (d. 576/1180)	46
2.	Ibn al-Jauzi (d. 597/1200)	47
3.	Ibn Qudama (d. 623/1220)	47
4.	Majd ad-Din b. Taimiya (d. 652/1254)	48
5.	Taqi ad-Din Ibn Taimiya (d. 728/1328)	48
6.	Dhahabi (d. 748/1347)	49
7.	Ibn Shakir al-Kutubi (d. 764/1363)	50
8.	Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373)	50
9.	Ibn Rajab (d. 795/1393)	50
	Notes to Part One	51
	Part Two Ibn 'Aqil and Scholasticism
	Section One: The Organisation of Professional Higher learning
	Preliminary Remarks	57
I.	The Guild of Law
1.	Transformation of Law Madhhab into Legal Guild 60
	Three Stages in the Development of the Law Madhhab	60
	Motivation for Ṭ abaqāt-Biography	61
	Change in the Arrangement of the Ṭ abaāat	61
	Ṭ abaqat and the Law Madhhab as Legal Guild	62
	One Legal Guild Inclusive of All Traditionalists	62
	Ṭ abaqāt-Biography and the Rise of Multiple Guilds	64
	Pervasiveness of Traditionalism	64
2.	Scholasticism and Orthodoxy	65
II.	The Wāḍiḥ and the Guild College Curriculum
1.	Original Scholarship and Learning	66
2.	Ibn 'Aqil's Wāḍiḥ and the Law Curriculum	69
	The Wāḍiḥ: A Summa on Uṣ ū l al-Fiqh	69
	The Wāḍiḥ: An Antidote to Kalām-Works	69
	The Wāḍiḥs Four Books and the Law Curriculum	69
	The Magisterium of the Jurisconsult-Theologian	70
	Objects and Instruments of Sciences	71
	Conclusion to the First Book of the Wāḍiḥ.	72
	Section Two: Theologies and Orthodoxy
I.	Three Theologies and their Technical Terms
1.	Kalām	73
2.	Uṣ ū l al-Fiqh	73
3.	Uṣ ū l ad-Dīn	74
4.	Ambiguity of the Three Terms	75
II.	Two 'Methods' for Uṣīl al-Fiqh
1.	The 'Method of the Mutakallim ū n'	76
2.	The 'Method of the Fuqahā"	78
III.	Ibn 'Aqil's Theology of the Two Uṣīls
1.	Ibn 'Aqil's Works on Theology	85
2.	The Wāḍiḥ's Two Uṣīls and Orthodoxy	85
3.	Natural Theology and Juridical Theology	88
	Section Three: Main Currents of Ibn 'Aqil's Thought
I.	The Roots of Knowledge	90
II.	Reason
1.	Definition	92
2.	Reason, God's Gift	92
3.	Rights of Reason	93
4.	Intoxication and Reason	94
5.	Functions of Reason	94
6.	Three Categories of Men Regarding Reason	95
7.	Reason and Revelation	96
8.	Reconciliation of Reason and Revelation	97
9.	Reason and Uṣīl ad-Dīn	98
10.	Reason and Uṣīl al-Fiqh	99
III.	Truth
1.	Truth and Disputations	100
2.	Attorney and Guilty Client	101
IV.	The Divine Attributes
1.	The Basic Traditionalist Doctrine	101
2.	Divisions of the Traditional Divine Attributes	102
3.	Imrār, Balkafa, and Ta'wīl	102
4.	Ambivalence and Contradictions	104
5.	Hanbali Ambivalence on the Verse of the Throne	107
6.	Divine Existence	110
7.	Divine Knowledge	112
8.	Divine Speech	113
9.	Divine Will and Power	121
10.	Names of God	122
V.	Obligation and the Problem of Good and Evil
1.	The Roots of Obligation	124
2.	Reason and Revelation in Relation to Good and Evil	125
3.	Before the Advent of Revelation	128
4.	The Imposition of Obligation Beyond Man's Capacity	131
VI.	Prophetology
	1. Muhammad the Man	132
	Muhammad's Religion	132
	His Merit	132
	His Qualities	132
	The Formula of God's Blessing upon Him	133
	The Excellence of His Mosque	133
	His Attraction to Women	133
2.	Muhammad the Messenger	134
	His Mission	134
	His Veracity	134
	The Validity of His Mission	135
	The Universality of His Mission	135
	Conversion Not by the Sword	136
	His Trials	136
3.	The Prophet's Miracles	137
	The Miracle as Sign of Prophethood	137
	His Miracles	137
	Risk in Foretelling the Future	138
4.	The Prophet and the Qur'an	138
	The Qur'an Not Authored by the Prophet	138
	The Prophet's Condition on Receiving the Revelation	139
	The Qur'an's I'jāz and the Sarfa	140
5.	The Prophet's Pervasive Islam and Batinism	141
VII.	Eschatology
1.	The Resurrection	142
2.	Repentance	144
3.	Punishment After Death	145
4.	The Beatific Vision	147
5.	Angelology	148
6.	Demonology	148
VIII.	The Traditionalist Creed
1.	The Danger of Kalām for the Muslim Creed	149
2.	'The Road of Safety'	149
	Notes to Part Two	150
	Part Three Ibn'Aqil and Humanism
	Section One: Humanism and Government
I.	Government and the Revealed Law
1.	Ādāb Shar'īya and Siyāsa Shar'īya	159
2.	The Oath of Allegiance to the Caliph	160
3.	Religious Intellectuals and the Governing Power	162
4.	Consensus and Governance	163
5.	Leadership and Statesmanship	164
6.	Religion and Government in the Eyes of the Law	167
II.	'Ordering the Good and Prohibiting Evil'
	Preliminary Remarks	168
1.	The Principle's Significance in Relation to Uṣīl al-Fiqh	168
2.	Requisites for its Application and Some Cases	168
3.	The Principle as Gauge of the True Faith	172
4.	Circumstances Considered	174
III.	Application of the Principle
	Plreliminary Remarks	175
1.	Praise	177
	Admirationfor the Early Mystics	177
	Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (d. 241/855)	178
	Ibn al-Bazkurdi (d. 460/1067) and Ibn Zibibya (d. 460/1067)	179
	Abu 'l-Hasan al-Amidi (d. 467/1074-5)	180
	Sharīf Abu Ja'far (d. 470/1077)	180
	Ibn al-Banna' (d. 471/1078)	181
	Abu Ishaq ash-Shirazi (d. 476/1083)	182
	Abu 'l-Wafa' Ibn al-Qauwas (d. 476/1083)	182
	Ibn as-Sabbagh (d. 477/1084) and ad-Damaghani (d. 478/1085)	183
	Ya'qub al-Barzabini (d. 486/1093)	183
	Abu Bakr ash-Shami (d. 488/1095)	183
	Abu Muhammad ai-Tamimi (d. 488/1095)	184
	Abu 'l-Fadl al-Hamadhani (d. 489/1096)	184
	Nur al-Huda az-Zainabi (d. 512/1118)	184
	Abu Mansur Ibn Yusuf (d. 460/1067) and Abu Tahir Yusuf (d. 512/1118)	184
	Nizam al-Mulk (d. 485/1092)	188
2.	Critique	189
	Letter to Rudhrawari	189
	Letter to Nizam al-Mulk in 484/1091	190
	Letter to Sultan Malikshah	191
	The Hanbali Legal Guild	191
	Candid Characterisation of the Hanbalis	192
	The Times at the Turn of the Century	193
	The Inconstancy of Men	193
	The Influence of Men on their Times	194
	Divine Providence and the Times	195
	The Lack of Religious Intellectuals	195
3.	Censure	196
	Censure, Excommunication, and Pain of Death	196
	Letter to Prime Minister Ibn Jahir in 488/1095	197
	Two Letters to Chief Judge ad-Damaghani, fils	198
	The Profligacy of Caliph Walid b. Yazid	201
	The General's Boast of Invading Mecca	202
	Ignorance of Religion by High Officials	202
	Worldliness of Religious Intellectuals	203
	Improper Use of Qur'anic Verses	203
	Heresy of Ibn ar-Rawandi	204
	Qazwini's Denial of Divine Prescience	205
	Preacher of Ash'arism, al-Bakri	206
	Heresy of Poet Ma'arri	206
	Suspected Heresy of Poet Ibn Sarr-Ba'r	207
	Eager Desire	207
	The Visiting of Tombs	209
	Magic and Superstition	213
	Sham Sufis	216
	Sufi Justification of Sensual Love	217
	Fatalism Among Sufis and Ascetics	218
	Section Two: Humanist Disciplines and Topics
I.	The Art of the Sermon
1.	Qualities of the Preacher	220
2.	Excesses and Pagan Practices	221
3.	Perils of Preaching	222
4.	Relations Between God and Man	222
II.	Virtue and Vice
1.	Virtue	229
	Manly Virtue	229
	Humility and Courage	229
	Friendship	230
	Loyalty	232
2.	Vice	232
	Hypocrisy and Signs of the Hypocrite	232
	Pride and Conceit	234
	Greed and Miserliness	235
III.	Maxims and Aphorisms
1.	On Society and Social Intercourse	236
2.	On the Need for Discretion About One's Habits	238
3.	On Virtue and Vice	238
	From the Prophet Muhammad	239
	From the Prophet David	240
	From Caliph 'Ali	240
	From Buzurgmihr	241
	From Quss b. Sa'ida	241
	From al-Ahnaf b. Qais (d. 72/691) to His Son	241
	From al-Harith b. Kalada (d. 50/670)	242
	From 'Utba b. Abi Sufyan (d. 44/664) to His Sons' Tutor	242
	From al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 110/728)	242
	From 'Ali b. 'Ubaida ar-Raihani (d. 219/834)	243
	From Abu Mansur ath-Tha'alibi (d. 429/1038)	243
	From Anonymous Wise Men	243
	IV. Philology
1.	Grammar	245
2.	Lexicography	245
	V. Poetry and a Meditation
1.	A Sampling of Poems	247
	Friendship	247
	Jest	248
	Flirtation	248
	Love at First Sight	248
	Love in Juyisconsults' Poetry'	249
	Death of his Son, 'Aqil	249
	Life's Heavy Blows	249
	Death Threat	250
	Transient Material World	250
	Desire for Deliverance	250
2.	A Meditation in His Ninth Decade	250
	Notes to Part Three	251
	Conclusion	257
	Bibliography	262
	Index	269

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