() is a theological

polemic Polemic ( , ) is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called polemics, which are seen in arguments on controversial to ...

by the Islamic scholar

Ibn al-Jawzi Abu al-Faraj Jamal al-Din Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Hasan Ali Al-Jawzi also known as Ibn al-Jawzi (16 June 1201) was a Muslim jurisconsult, preacher, orator, heresiographer, traditionist, historian, judge, hagiographer, and philologist who played ...

written between . The work is primarily directed at what, Ibn al-Jawzi held to be, growing anthropomorphic beliefs within the

Hanbali The Hanbali school or Hanbalism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It is named after and based on the teachings of the 9th-century scholar, jurist and tradit ...

school of

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, also known as theory of law or philosophy of law, is the examination in a general perspective of what law is and what it ought to be. It investigates issues such as the definition of law; legal validity; legal norms and values ...

, that he himself followed.

Anthropomorphism vs. Traditionalism

It singles out three prominent teachers within the Hanbali school: Al Hasan ibn Hamid (d. 1013), or Ibn Hamid, Muhammad ibn al-Husayn (d.1066), or al-Qadi Abu Ya'la, and Ibn al-Jawzi's own teacher, Ali ibn Ubayd Allah, or Ibn az-Zaghuni (d. 1132), contending that they shirked from the beliefs of the school's founder, Ibn Hanbal. In the polemic,

distinguishes between anthropomorphic interpretation of ambiguous

Qur'anic The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

verses and

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

, and traditional interpretation. He writes in the polemic:

The imam Ahmad used to say "Let the texts of scripture stand as they are." Some of his leading disciples followed this principle ... However, three persons whom we have already mentioned viz. Ibn Hamid, the Qadi bu Ya'la and Ibn az-Zaghuni are well known as advocates of a method of interpretation that takes sense experience as its point of departure.

He writes elsewhere in the polemic:

I say to my fellow Hanbalis: You are proponents of scripture and tradition ... Has anyone ever reported to you that Ahmad taught God's stawa'on the throne is one of the attributes of his essence or an attribute of action? On what grounds do you justify venturing into discussionof such matters?

Ibn al-Jawzi's Ta'wil

While Ibn al-Jawzi advocated for a traditionalist and non-anthropomorphic approach to

exegesis in , he did not object to interpretation outside the realm of "sense experience," interpreting 12

verses and 60

in that manner. This included interpreting the

phrase ''yadayan'', which literally means "hands", to mean "favor or act of kindness" and interpreting the

phrase ''saq'', which literally means leg, to mean "power or ... might."

God is neither inside nor outside of the Universe

Ibn al-Jawzi states, in ''as-Sifat'', that God neither exists inside the world nor outside of it. To him, "being inside or outside are concomitant of things located in space" i.e. what is outside or inside must be in a place, and, according to him, this is not applicable to God. He writes:

Both eing in a place and outside a placealong with movement, rest, and other accidents are constitutive of bodies ... The divine essence does not admit of any created entity .g. placewithin it or inhering in it.

Conception of the Hanbali school of jurisprudential thought

Ahmad ibn Hanbal

The

scholar

states, in ''as-Sifat'', that

Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ahmad ibn Hanbal (; (164-241 AH; 780 – 855 CE) was an Arab Muslim scholar, jurist, theologian, traditionist, ascetic and eponym of the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence—one of the four major orthodox legal schools of Sunni Islam. T ...

would have been opposed to anthropomorphic interpretations of

texts such as those of al-Qadi Abu Ya'la, Ibn Hamid and Ibn az-Zaghuni.

Ibn al-Zaghuni

Ibn al-Jawzi criticized Ibn az-Zaghuni for his statements regarding the Qur'anic ''istiwa. He writes:

Ibn az-Zaghuni was asked whether a new attribute came into being upon the creation of the Throne, which had not existed previously, and he replied: "No, only the world was created with the attribute of being 'beneath' and so, in relation to he Thronewhich God occupies, the world is lower ... This man does not understand the implications of what he says, for when he ascribes to God ... a separation between the Creator and His creation, he imposes limits on Him and in effect, declares Him a body ... This ''shaykh'' does not comprehend what is necessarily entailed in God's status as Creator or what is incompatible with that status ...

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Hanbali works Sunni literature Ash'ari literature Islamic belief and doctrine Books about anthropomorphism in Islamic theology