Meta-Entity (al-Ghayr) and Its Value Metaphysics in al-Māturīdī

Abstract

This paper addresses the problem of value, which, despite its importance in the thought of divinity (al-ulūhiyyah), is often overshadowed by the problem of being and knowledge. In particular, we will dwell on criticism by al-Māturīdī of Muʿtazilī conceptions of divinity based on intellectual and moral premises. The objective is to depict the establishment of unity between being/entity, knowledge and value in the system of al-Māturīdī. In this regard, this study analyzes the concept of the meta-entity (الغير), which was apparently used for the first time by al-Māturīdī in kalām thought and terminology. In addition, we conduct an epistemic interpretation of the unity ensured between being/entity, knowledge, and value on the basis of the meta-entity to clarify the epistemic metaphysics of value that defends the being in itself of divinity against the ethical metaphysics of value established by Muʿtazilah in such a manner as to harm the transcendence of divinity.

Keywords

• Meta-entity (الغير)
• divinity
• value
• reasoning/limmiyyah
• being in itself/inniyyah
• al-Māturīdī

References

1. al-Ashʿarī, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl. Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn wa-khtilāf al-muṣallīn. Edited by Aḥmad Jād. Cairo: Dār al-Ḥadīth, 2009.
2. Aslan, İbrahim. Kâdî Abdülcebbâr’a Göre Dinin Aklî ve Ahlâkî Savunusu. Ankara: OTTO, 2014.
3. Aslan, İbrahim. “İmam Maturidî’nin Deist Eleştirilere Karşı Nübüvvet Savunusu.” Kelâm Araştırmaları 12, no. 2 (2014): 33-54. https://doi.org/10.18317/kader.03592.
4. Ay, Mahmut. “Kelam’da Adalet, Kudret ve Hikmet Bağlamında Tanrı Tasavvurları.” Eskiyeni 31 (2015): 25-50.
5. al-Baghdādī, Abū Manṣūr ʿAbd al-Qāhir ibn Ṭāhir. Al-Farq bayna l-firaq wa-bayān al-firqah al-nājiyah minhum: ʿAqāʾid al-firaq al-Islāmiyyah wa-ārāʾ kibār aʿlāmihā. Edited by Muḥammad ʿUthmān al-Khusht. Cairo: Maktabat Ibn Sīnā, 1988.
6. al-Balkhī, Abū l-Qāsim ʿAbd Allāh ibn Aḥmad. Kitāb al-maqālāt wa-maʿahū ʿUyūn al-masāʾil wa-l-jawābāt. Edited by Hüseyin Hansu, Rājiḥ Kurdī, and ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd Kurdī. Istanbul: KURAMER, 2018.
7. Ibn Sīnā, Abū ʿAlī al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAlī. al-Shifāʾ: al-Ilāhiyyāt (2). Edited by George Anawati and Saʿīd Zāyed. Cairo: al-Hayʾah al-ʿĀmmah li-Shuʾūn al-Maṭābiʿ al-Amīriyyah, 1960.
8. al-Jāḥiẓ, Abū ʿUthmān ʿAmr ibn Baḥr. Kitāb al-ḥayawān. Edited by ʿAbd al-Salām Muḥammad Hārūn. 2nd ed. 8 vols. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Muṣṭafá al-Bābī al-Ḥalabī, 1965.

9. al-Khayyāṭ, Abū l-Ḥusayn ʿAbd al-Raḥīm ibn Muḥammad. Kitāb al-intiṣār wa-l-radd ʿalá Ibn al-Rāwandī al-mulḥid mā qaṣada bihī min al-kadhib ʿalá l-Muslimīn wa-l-ṭaʿn ʿalayhim. Edited by H. Samuel Nyberg. Cairo: Maṭbaʿat Dār al-Kutub al-Miṣriyyah, 1925.
10. al-Māturīdī, Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd. Kitāb al-tawḥīd. Edited by Bekir Topaloğlu-Muhammed Aruçi. Beirut & Istanbul: Dār Ṣādir & İSAM Yayınları, 2007.
11. al-Māturīdī, Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd. Taʾwīlāt al-Qurʾān, VIII (al-Ḥijr - al-Isrāʾ). Edited by Halil İbrahim Kaçar. Istanbul: Dār al-Mīzān, 2006.
12. al-Māturīdī, Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd. Taʾwīlāt al-Qurʾān, XI (al-Qaṣaṣ - Sabaʾ). Edited by Ali Haydar Ulusoy. Istanbul: Dār al-Mīzān, 2008.
13. al-Muqammaṣ, Abū Sulaymān Dāwūd ibn Marwān. Twenty Chapters. Edited and translated by Sarah Stroumsa. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2015.
14. al-Najrānī, Taqī al-Dīn Muhhtār ibn Maḥmūd al-ʿUjālī. al-Kāmil fī l-istiqṣāʾ fīmā balaghanā min kalām al-qudamāʾ. Edited by Sayyid Muḥammad al-Shāhid. Cairo: Wizārat al-Awqāf, 1999.
15. al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadānī. Faḍl al-iʿtizāl wa-ṭabaqāt al-Muʿtazilah. Edited by Fuʾād Sayyid. In Faḍl al-iʿtizāl wa-ṭabaqāt al-Muʿtazilah, along with Abū l-Qāsim al-Balkhī’s (Bāb) Dhikr al-Muʿtazilah min Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn and Ḥākim al-Jishumī’s al-Ṭabaqatān al-ḥādiyah ʿashrah wa-l-thāniyah ʿashrah min kitāb Sharḥ al-ʿuyūn. Tunis: al-Dār al-Tūnisiyyah li-l-Nashr, 1974.
16. al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadānī. al-Mughnī fī abwāb al-tawḥīd wa-l-ʿadl, V (al-Firaq ghayr al-Islāmiyyah). Edited by Maḥmūd Muḥammad Qāsim. Cairo: al-Dār al-Miṣriyyah li-l-Taʾlīf wa-l-Tarjamah, n.d.
17. al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadānī. al-Mughnī, VI/1 (al-Taʿdīl wa-l-tajwīr). Edited by Aḥmad Fuʾād al-Ahwānī (Cairo: al-Muʾassasah al-Miṣriyyah al-Āmmah li-l-Taʾlīf wa-l-Tarjamah wa-l-Ṭibāʿah wa-l-Nashr, 1962.
18. al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadānī. al-Mughnī, VII (Khalq al-Qurʾān). Edited by Ibrāhīm al-Abyārī. Cairo: al-Sharīkah al-ʿArabiyyah li-l-Ṭibāʿah wa-l-Nashr, 1961.
19. al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadānī. al-Mughnī, XI (al-Taklīf). Edited by M. ʿAlī al-Najjār and ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm al-Najjār. Cairo: al-Dār al-Miṣriyyah li-l-Taʾlīf wa-l-Tarjamah, 1965.
20. al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadānī. al-Mughnī, XII (al-Naẓar wa-l-maʿārif). Edited by Ibrāhīm Madkūr. Cairo: al-Muʾassasah al-Miṣriyyah al-ʿĀmmah li-l-Taʾlīf wa-l-Tarjamah wa-l-Ṭibāʿah wa-l-Nashr, n.d.
21. al-Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, Abū l-Ḥasan ʿAbd al-Jabbār ibn Aḥmad al-Hamadānī. al-Mughnī, XIV (al-Aṣlaḥ, istiḥqāq al-dhamm, al-tawbah). Edited by Muṣṭafá al-Saqqā. Cairo: al-Dār al-Miṣriyyah li-l-Taʾlīf wa-l-Tarjamah, 1965.
22. al-Rassī, Abū Muḥammad al-Qāsim ibn Ibrāhīm. Majmūʿ kutub wa-rasāʾil al-Imām al-Qāsim ibn Ibrāhīm al-Rassī, 169-246 H. Edited by ʿAbd al-Karīm Aḥmad Jadbān. Ṣanʿāʾ: Dār al-Ḥikmah al-Yamaniyyah, 2001.
23. Rudolph, Ulrich. Al-Māturīdī and the Development of Sunnī Theology in Samarqand. Translated by Rodrigo Adem. Leiden & Boston: Brill, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004261846.
24. Ṣadr al-sharīʿah al-thānī, ʿUbayd Allāh ibn Masʿūd ibn Tāj al-sharīʿah ʿUmar al-Maḥbūbī al-Ḥanafī. Sharḥ Taʿdīl al-ʿulūm fī l-kalām. MS Istanbul: Süleymaniye Library, Antalya Tekelioğlu, no.798.
25. al-Shahrastānī, Abū l-Fatḥ Tāj al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Karīm. Al-Milal wa-l-niḥal. Edited by Aḥmad Fahmī Muḥammad. 3 vols. in 1. Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah, 1990.