| Ethics |
| |
| In the first half of the eighth century, the debates about qualified leadership, the existence of injustices in the community, and its appropriate response to redress the situation, formed the rudiments of the earliest systematic theology of the group called Mu`tazilites. Before them, some Muslim thinkers had developed theological arguments, including a doctrine of God and human responsibility, in defense of the Islamic revelations and the prophethood of Muhammad when these were challenged by other monotheists. The Mu`tazilites, however, undertook to show that there was nothing repugnant to reason in the Islamic revelation. In defining God's creation and governance of the world, these early Muslim theologians sought to demonstrate the primacy of revelation. At the same time, their theology reflected Hellenic influences. From the ninth century on, translations of the full Greek philosophic and scientific heritage became available in Arabic. The result was the development of a technical vocabulary and a pattern of syntax that enriched theological terminology. |
|
 |
| |
| |
| The Ash`arite traditionalists, reacting to Mu`tazilite rationalism, limited speculative theology to a defense of the doctrines given in the hadith-reports, which were regarded more reliable than abstract reason in deducing individual doctrines. The Ash`arites emphasized the absolute will and power of God, and denied nature and humankind any decisive role. What humans perceive as causation, they believed, is actually God's habitual behavior. In their response to the Mu`tazilite view about the objective nature of good and evil, and in their effort to maintain the effectiveness of a God, at once omnipotent and omnibenevolent, who could and did intervene in human affairs, they maintained that good and evil are what God decrees them to be. God transcends the order of nature. Hence, the notion of free will is incompatible with the divine transcendence, which determines all actions directly. Ash`arite theological views remained dominant throughout Islamic history, well into modern times, and had profound effect upon scientific and particularly medical theory and practice among the Sunnites. |
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
| The Shi`ite theological and ethical doctrines were based on the thesis about the Justice of God, and the objective nature of moral values. The belief in God’s justice meant that God does not require from humanity anything that is beyond their capacity. Moreover, before God imposes a duty on human beings He gives them will power (volition) and basic knowledge of good and evil (cognition) so that they can follow the guidance implanted in their nature to do the good and avoid the evil. Hence, before holding them accountable for their actions God provides them with the free will so that they can either obey or disobey God’s commands, and face the consequence of their choice. However, human beings need further gifts of divine guidance. These gifts are God’s grace (lutf). The divine gifts take the form of reason as well as the role models in the person of the prophets and their rightful successors. It is here that the Shi`ite theologians regard the necessity of sending the Prophet and designating the Imams by God as a rationally understood requirement for the betterment of humanity. |
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
