Schools of Islamic theology

See Islamic schools and branches for different schools of thought; see aqidah for the concept
of the different "creeds" in Islam; see Kalamfor the concept of theological discourse.

Schools of Islamic theology are various Islamic schools and branches in different schools of
thought regarding aqidah (creed). According to Muhammad Abu
Zahra, Qadariyah, Jahmis, Murji'ah, Muʿtazila, Batiniyya, Ash'ari, Maturidi, Athari are the
ancient schools of aqidah.

The Meeting of the Theologians by Abd Allah Musawwir, mid-16th century.

The main split between Sunni and Shia Islam was initially more political than theological, but
over time theological differences have developed. Still, differences in aqidah occur as
divisions orthogonal to the main divisions in Islam along political or fiqh lines, such that a
Muʿtazili might, for example, belong to Ja'fari, Zaidi or even Hanafi school of jurisprudence.
Contents
Divinity schools in IslamEdit
Main articles: Aqidah and Islamic schools and branches

Aqidah is an Islamic term meaning "creed" or "belief". Any religious belief system, or creed,
can be considered an example of aqidah. However this term has taken a significant technical
usage in Muslim history and theology, denoting those matters over which Muslims hold
conviction. The term is usually translated as "theology". Such traditions are divisions
orthogonal to sectarian divisions of Islam, and a Mu'tazili may for example, belong to Jafari,
Zaidi or even Hanafi school of jurisprudence. One of the earliest systematic theological
school to develop, in the mid 8th-century, was Mu'tazila. It emphasized reason and rational
thought, positing that the injunctions of God are accessible to rational thought and inquiry
and that the Qur'an, albeit the word of God, was created rather than uncreated, which would
develop into one of the most contentious questions in Islamic theology.
In the 10th century, the Ash'ari school developed as a response to Mu'tazila, leading to the
latter's decline. Ash'ari still taught the use of reason in understanding the Qur'an, but denied
the possibility to deduce moral truths by reasoning. This was opposed by the school
of Maturidi, which taught that certain moral truths may be found by the use of reason without
the aid of revelation.
Another point of contention was the relative position of iman ("faith") vs. taqwa ("piety").
Such schools of theology are summarized under Ilm al-Kalam, or "science of discourse", as
opposed to mystical schools who deny that any theological truth may be discovered by means
of discourse or reason.
Sunni schools of theologyEdit
Main article: Sunni Islam

Sunni Muslims are the largest denomination of Islam and are known as Ahl as-Sunnah wa’l-
Jamā‘h or simply as Ahl as-Sunnah. The word Sunni comes from the word sunnah, which
means the teachings and actions or examples of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Therefore,
the term "Sunni" refers to those who follow or maintain the sunnah of the prophet
Muhammad.
The Sunnis believe that Muhammad did not appoint a successor to lead the
Muslim ummah (community) before his death, and after an initial period of confusion, a
group of his most prominent companions gathered and elected Abu Bakr Siddique,
Muhammad's close friend and a father-in-law, as the first caliph of Islam. Sunni Muslims
regard the first four caliphs (Abu Bakr, `Umar ibn al-Khattāb, Uthman Ibn Affanand Ali ibn
Abu Talib) as "al-Khulafā’ur-Rāshidūn" or "The Rightly Guided Caliphs." After the
Rashidun, the position turned into a hereditary right and the caliph's role was limited to being
a political symbol of Muslim strength and unity.
AthariEdit
Main article: Traditionalist Theology (Islam)

Atharism (Arabic: ‫ ;أثري‬textualism) is a movement of Islamic scholars who reject

rationalistic Islamic theology (kalam) in favor of strict textualism in interpreting
the Quran.[1] The name is derived from the Arabic word athar, literally meaning "remnant"
and also referring to a "narrative".[2] Their disciples are called the Athariyya, or Atharis.
For followers of the Athari movement, the "clear" meaning of the Qur'an, and especially the
prophetic traditions, has sole authority in matters of belief, and to engage in rational
disputation (kalam), even if one arrives at the truth, is absolutely forbidden.[3] Atharis engage
in an amodal reading of the Qur'an, as opposed to one engaged in Ta'wil (metaphorical
interpretation). They do not attempt to conceptualize the meanings of the Qur'an rationally,
and believe that the "real" meaning should be consigned to God alone (tafwid).[4] In essence,
the meaning has been accepted without asking "how" or "Bi-la kaifa".
On the other hand, the famous Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Jawzi states, in Kitab Akhbar as-
Sifat, that Ahmad ibn Hanbal would have been opposed to anthropomorphic intrepretations
of Qur'anic texts such as those of al-Qadi Abu Ya'la, Ibn Hamid and Ibn az-Zaghuni.[5] Based
on Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi's criticism of Athari-Hanbalis, Muhammad Abu Zahra, a
Professor of Islamic law at Cairo University deduced that Salafi aqidah is located somewhere
between ta'tili and anthropopathy (Absolute Ẓāhirīsm in understanding
the tashbih in Qur'an)[6][7] in Islam. Absolute Ẓāhirīsm and total rejection of ta'wil are
amongst the fundamental characteristics of this "new" Islamic school of theology.
Karram’iyyahEdit
Main article: Karramiyya

Anthropomorphic Karram’iyyah was founded by Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b.

Karrām[8] Ibn Karram considered that God was a substance and that He had a body (jism)
finite in certain directions when He comes into contact with the Throne.[9][10][11]
Further information: Anthropomorphism

Ilm al-KalāmEdit
Main article: Ilm al-Kalam

ʿIlm al-Kalām (Arabic: ‫علم الكالم‬, literally "science of discourse"[12]), usually

foreshortened to kalam and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology", is an rational
undertaking born out of the need to establish and defend the tenets of Islamic faith against
doubters and detractors.[13] 'Ilm al-Kalam incorporates Aristotelian reasoning and logic into
Islamic theology. A scholar of kalam is referred to as a mutakallim (plural mutakallimūn) as
distinguished from philosophers, jurists, and scientists.[14] There are many possible
interpretations as to why this discipline was originally called "kalam"; one is that the widest
controversy in this discipline has been about whether the Word of God, as revealed in
the Qur'an, can be considered part of God's essence and therefore not created, or whether it
was made into words in the normal sense of speech, and is therefore created.
Ash'ariyyahEdit
Main article: Al-Ash`ari

The Mu'tazila were challenged by Abu al-Hasan Al-Ash'ari, who famously defected from the
Mu'tazila and formed the rival Ash'ari school of theology.[15] The Ash'ari school took the
opposite position of the Mu'tazila and insisted that truth cannot be known through reason
alone. The Ash'ari school further claimed that truth can only be known through revelation.
The Ash'ari claim that without revelation, the unaided human mind would not be able to
know if something is good or evil.
Today, the Ash'ari school is considered one of the Orthodox schools of theology. The Ash'ari
school is the basis of the Shafi'i school of jurisprudence, which has supplied it with most of
its most famous disciples.[16] The most famous of these are Abul-Hassan Al-Bahili, Abu Bakr
Al-Baqillani, al-Juwayni, Al-Razi and Al-Ghazali. Thus Al-Ash`ari’s school became,
together with the Maturidi, the main schools reflecting the beliefs of the Sunnah.[16]
JahmiyyahEdit
Main article: Jahmites

Jahmis were the followers of the Islamic theologian Jahm bin Safwan who associate himself
with Al-Harith ibn Surayj. He was an exponent of extreme determinism according to which a
man acts only metaphorically in the same way in which the sun acts or does something when
it sets.[17] This is the position adopted by the Ash'ari school, which holds that God's
omnipotence is absolute and perfect over all creation.
Mâtûrîd’iyyahEdit
Main article: Maturidi

The Maturidi school was founded by Abu Mansur Al Maturidi, and is the most popular
theological school amongst Muslims, especially in the areas formerly controlled by
the Ottomans and the Mughals. Today, the Maturidi school is the position favored by the ahl
al-ra'y (people of reason), which includes the Hanafi and Maliki schools of fiqh who make up
the majority of Muslims.[18]
The Maturidi school takes the middle position between the Ash'ari and Mu'tazili schools on
the questions of knowing truth and free will. The Maturidis say that the unaided human mind
is able to find out that some of the more major sins such as alcohol or murder are evil without
the help of revelation, but still maintain that revelation is the ultimate source of knowledge.
Additionally, the Maturidi believe that God created and can control all of His creation, but
that he allows humans to make individual decisions and choices for themselves.
Murji'ahEdit
Main article: Murji'ah

Murji'ah (Arabic: ‫ )المرجئة‬is an early Islamic school whose followers are known in English
as "Murjites" or "Murji'ites" (‫)المرجئون‬. The Murji'ah emerged as a theological school in
response to the Kharijites on the early question about the relationship between sin and
apostasy (rida).The Murji'ah believed that sin did not affect a person's beliefs (iman) but
rather their piety (taqwa). Therefore, they advocated the idea of "delayed judgement," (irjaa).
The Murji'ah maintain that anyone who proclaims the bare minimum of faith must be
considered a Muslim, and sin alone cannot cause someone to become a
disbeliever (kafir). The Murjite opinion would eventually dominate that of the Kharijites and
become the mainstream opinion in Sunni Islam. The later schools of Sunni theology adopted
their stance while form more developed theological schools and concepts.
QadariyyahEdit
Main article: Qadariyah

Qadariyyah is an originally derogatory term designating early Islamic theologians who

asserted human beings are ontologically free and have a perfect free will, whose exercise
justifies divine punishment and absolving God of responsibility for evil in the
world.[19][20] Their doctrines were adopted by the Mu'tazilis and rejected by
the Ash'aris.[19] The tension between free will and God's omnipotence was later reconciled by
the Maturidi school of theology, which asserted that God grants human beings their agency,
but can remove or otherwise alter it at any time.
Further information: 'Amr ibn 'Ubayd, Al-Jubba'i, Abd al-Jabbâr al-Hamadhânî, Ibrahim an-Nazzam, and Al-Jahiz

Mu'tazilaEdit
Main articles: Mu'tazili and Wasil Ibn 'Ata'

The first group to pursue this undertaking were the Mu'tazila, who asserted that all truth
could be known through reason alone. Mu'tazili theology originated in the 8th century
in Basra when Wasil Ibn 'Ata' stormed out of a lesson of Hasan al-Basri following a
theological dispute.
The Mu'tazila asserted that everything in revelation could be found through rational means
alone. The Mu'tazila were heavily influenced by the Greek philosophy they encountered and
began to adopt the ideas of Plotinus, whose Neoplatonic theology caused an enormous
backlash against them. The political backlash the Mu'tazila faced, as well as the challenged
brought forth by new schools of theology caused this group to atrophy and decline into
irrelevancy. They are no longer considered an Orthodox school of theology by Sunni
Muslims.
Bâ’ Hashim’iyyahEdit
Main article: Bahshamiyya
Bâh’ Sham’iyyah[21] was a school of Mu'tazili thought, rivaling the school of Qadi Abd al-
Jabbar, based primarily on the earlier teaching of Abu Hashim al-Jubba'i,[22] the son of Abu
'Ali Muhammad al-Jubba'i.
Further information: Abu'l Husayn al-Basri