Jazakallh khair for the very descriptive and detailed information regarding the matter pointed out on the portal of Al Inaamiyyah,”Abdals and aqtabs”.
May Allah (ST) make the people understand the true picture and bring them in consensus of Ahle Sunnah wal jamat.
Due to my lack of understanding , I was not clear on the answer of the second part of the question with the questioner had put forth . If possible , can you briefly explain the answer, because I belong to same madhab of Imam Matureedi.
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful
Assalaamu `alaykum waRahmatullahi Wabarakatoh
(The original answer could be found here)
In short, the questioner reproduced a text (without giving the reference) that Mātūrīdīs divide the sources and basis of Islam (from which they extract laws) into two categories. One of these two are:
1) Mātūrīdīs assert that some decrees are extracted and established independently from reasoning and analogy. He further claimed that ‘this includes issues of Tawhīd and the Divine attributes’.
He thereafter remarked, “It is obvious that this is contradictory to the methodology of Ahl al-Sunnah wa’l-Jamaa’ah, because the Qur’aan, Sunnah and consensus of the Sahaabah are the sources of guidance in their view. This is in addition to their bid’ah (innovation) of dividing the sources of religion into rational matters vs. transmitted reports, which was based on the false notion of the philosophers who assumed that the religious texts contradict reason, so they tried to mediate between reason and the transmitted reports. This led them to force reason into fields where it has no place, so they came up with false rulings which contradicted sharee’ah, and that led them to say that they did not know what the texts mean and that only Allaah knows their meaning, or to misinterpret them altogether.”
In response, we explain to him that he has correctly affirmed that reasoning is independently used in issues of Tawheed (monotheism). A person who does not believe in Allah will not accept laws derived from Quraan and Hadith. Hence, Allah obliged them to bring Imaan by pondering and applying their minds. We proved to him that this belief of the Mātūrīdīs is not something alien to Islam. In fact, there are numerous verses of the Quran which exhorts the disbelievers to bring faith after applying their intellect. Consider the following,
القرآن الكريم – (ج 1 / ص 42)
يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لِمَ تُحَآجُّونَ فِي إِبْرَاهِيمَ وَمَا أُنزِلَتِ التَّورَاةُ وَالإنجِيلُ إِلاَّ مِن بَعْدِهِ أَفَلاَ تَعْقِلُونَ
“O people of the Scripture (Jews and Christians)! Why do you dispute about Ibrahim (Abraham), while the Taurat (Torah) and the Injeel (Gospel) were not revealed till after him? Have you then no sense.” (Al Imran, 65)
القرآن الكريم – (ج 1 / ص 154)
قُل لَّوْ شَاء اللَّهُ مَا تَلَوْتُهُ عَلَيْكُمْ وَلاَ أَدْرَاكُم بِهِ فَقَدْ لَبِثْتُ فِيكُمْ عُمُرًا مِّن قَبْلِهِ أَفَلاَ تَعْقِلُونَ
“Say: If Allah had desired, I would not have recited it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. I have lived among you a lifetime before it. Do you not then understand.”(Yunus, 16)
القرآن الكريم – (ج 1 / ص 167)
يَا قَوْمِ لا أَسْأَلُكُمْ عَلَيْهِ أَجْرًا إِنْ أَجْرِيَ إِلاَّ عَلَى الَّذِي فَطَرَنِي أَفَلاَ تَعْقِلُونَ
“Oh my people, I do not ask you for any wage, verily my wage is on the one who has created me. Will you not then understand.” (Hud, 51)
القرآن الكريم – (ج 1 / ص 244)
أُفٍّ لَّكُمْ وَلِمَا تَعْبُدُونَ مِن دُونِ اللَّهِ أَفَلا تَعْقِلُونَ
“Fie upon you, and upon that which you worship besides Allah! Have you then no sense?” (Al Ambiya, 67)
القرآن الكريم – (ج 1 / ص 259)
وَهُوَ الَّذِي يُحْيِي وَيُمِيتُ وَلَهُ اخْتِلافُ اللَّيْلِ وَالنَّهَارِ أَفَلا تَعْقِلُونَ
“And it is He Who gives life and causes death, and His is the alternation of night and day. Will you not then understand” (Al Muminun,80)
In all the above verses Allah exhorts the disbelievers to bring faith by pondering. There is not a single verse where Allah commands them to first learn Iman and then bring faith.
The brother further equated the stance of the Mātūrīdīs with that of the Philosophers. We pointed out the difference between our stance and that of the philosophers by saying that the latter consider reason as equal and on par with the Quran (i.e. if there is contradiction between Quran and intellect, they would prefer one of the two, either the Quran or intellect). On the contrary, we regard reason to be a subordinate to the Quran (i.e. reason will only be accepted if it is in conformity with Quran and hadith; Quran and hadith is the basis). We proved this by citing a text mentioned in Nibraas (an authoritive book in Mātūrīdī Aqeedah). The text quoted in the question is a distorted version of the original text. The author says,
الرابع إن أساس العقائد هي نصوص الكتاب و السنة و علم الكلام أساس الكتاب و السنة– أما المقدمة الثانية فقد مر بيانها وأما المقدمة الأولي فلأن العقائد قسمان قسم لا يستقل العقل بإثباته كعذاب القبر و الحوض و الصراط و الشفاعة و توقفه علي النصوص ظاهر و قسم يستقل بإثباته كوجود الواجب و وحدته و علمه و قدرته و حدوث العالم و هو و إن لم يكن موقوفا علي النصوص من حيث الإثبات لكنه موقوف عليها من حيث الاعتبار بها فان المسائل العقلية التي لا يشهد الشرع بحقيتها غير معتبرة في العقائد….
…و أجيب بان العقائد بحسب اعتدادها موقوفة علي الكتاب و السنة الموقوفين علي العقائد بحسب ذاتها فباختلاف الحيثية لا يلزم الدور
In short, according to the Ahl as sunnah wal Jama’ah (Mātūrīdīs and Asha’ries), reason is suspended on Quran and hadith. Only that reason will be accepted which is in conformity to Quran and Hadith.
And Allah knows best
Wassalam
Ml. Ismail Moosa,
Student Darul Iftaa
Checked and Approved by:
Mufti Ebrahim Desai
Darul Iftaa, Madrassah In’aamiyyah