The Historical Account Of ʿabd Al-Jabbār Al-Hamadani’s Physicalist Conception Of Human Soul
Abstract
This study aims to go through Muʿtazilite understandings of a man briefly and expounds on Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Hamadani’s (d. 1025) strong rejection of any non-physicalist view of man and his soul. Amongst the Mu'tazilite school prevailed three distinct views on man, hence of the soul; the non-physicalist tradition represented by Ibrāhīm b. Sayyār an-Naẓẓām (d. 836) who claimed that man is the dwelling soul in the human corpse. The dualist view as advocated by Muʿammar b. ʿAbbād (d. 830) who understood man as a combination of the material body and immaterial soul. The third view is the so-called materialist stance on the human being. Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbār as one of the advocates of this view argues that man does not possess any immaterial or immortal soul. This paper proposes that such a peculiar view of man was the natural outcome of ʿAbd al-Jabbār’s cosmological setting and his sensitivity towards legal matters (talkif). ʿAbd al-Jabbār’s image of man does not need other; a soul, to make him will or capable of certain actions, for man is this corporeal body which could be seen in its actuality, and experienced in its totality. Therefore, he defines man (šaẖs) as a living being (ḥayy), having volition (murid), capable of acting voluntarily (qādir) and consequently entitles him with the responsibility for moral and religious obligations (al-mukallaf). It could be widely observed that Qadi, though admits the presence of soul in the body for its being alive, does not consider it to be living in itself or eternal. The soul, however, is the contingent breath, by which lightweight bodies (air) are inhaled and exhaled. It is an integral part of a living human being such as his flesh, blood or body structures.
Keywords
Thanks
References
- Majid Fakhry, ‘The Muʿtazilite View of Man’, Recherches d’islamologie: Recueil d’articles offert á Georges C. Anawati et Louis Gradet par leur collègues et amis, (Leuven, 1977) pp. 107-121. J. Meric Pessagno, ‘Irada, Ikhtiyar, Qudra, Kasb the View of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi’, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 104, No. 1, Studies in Islam and the Ancient Near East Dedicated to Franz Rosenthal (Jan. – Mar., 1984), pp. 177-191.
Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
-
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Abdulbasit Zafar
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Türkiye
Publication Date
June 20, 2020
Submission Date
January 7, 2020
Acceptance Date
April 15, 2020
Published in Issue
Year 2020 Number: 48