Who Said Islam Doesn’t Have Trinity? ===
Hamzah Yusuf says: “These three men (Abu Mansur Al-Maturidi, Abu Ja’afar Al-Tahawy, Abu Hasan Al-Ashari) are all living at the same time and they formulate these creeds that save Islam.”
Saving Islam comes in Threes: Here is what Hamzah Yusuf promotes.
- There is Imam Abu Ja`far At-Ta`hawi (239-321 Hijri/853-933 CE), who represents the creed of the Salaf. Imam At-Ta`hawi wrote the famous book on creed popularly known as, Al-`Aqeedah At-Ta`hawiyyah, where he stated the creed according to Imam Abu `Haneefah and his students, who were scholars in their own right. This book on Aqeedah (Islamic Creed) was accepted by the scholars of Ahl As-Sunnah wal-Jama`ah as stating the creed of the Salaf, and was since called, The Blessed Aqeedah.
- There is also Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash`ari (260-324 Hijri/874-936 CE), who initially represented the Mu`tazilah creed that decided, without authority from Allah, that Allah does not have attributes. Later, Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash`ari publicly shunned the Mu’tazilah sect, refuted it, and -generally- embraced the way of the Salaf as he stated in his own words and writings. However, he did not perfectly embrace all aspects and details of the Salaf`s way. What’s funny, and at the same time tragic, is that today’s Ash`aris embrace the earlier creed of Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash`ari, not the final creed he publicly declared and embraced. Ash`ari scholars, who had efforts against the Mu`tazilah and the Jahmiyyah deviant sects in earlier times, tried to take -or fake- a middle way between clear texts of the Quran and Sunnah and the deviant sects mentioned above who they bitterly criticized. However, they ended up adopting some aspects of the very deviant creeds they opposed and exposed. According to Ibn Taimiyyah and other scholars, Imam Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash’ari adopted, before he died, and in general, the creed of the Salaf as represented by Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal. This is what Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash’ari himsrfl declared. The Ash’aris contradict the Imam they claimed to follow, by adding many philosophical ideas to the Ash’ari way which Imam Abu Al-Hasan has never promoted, but in fact rejected. The Imams of Islam who were greater than Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash’ari in status and knowledge, have explained for Muslims the correct creed as the Quran and Sunnah established it.
- There is also Hanafi scholar Abu Mansur Al-Maturidi (died 333 Hijri/944CE) whose status in knowledge and, in particular, his teachers, are not widely known. Al-Maturidi, who often refuted the Mu`tazilah and Jahmiyyah deviant sects, collected numerous innovations himself in the creed, especially his stance about Allah’s attributes: he denied as many of them as he could. He was a teacher of bid’ah and religious innovations who said that Eman (Faith) only resides in the heart, thus removing statements and actions from the essence of Eman. His followers now, such as the Deobandies and the Barelwis, even though having a useful history in the areas of hadeeth and fiqh, have collected massive innovations that include worship of graves and discredited extremist Sufism. Al-Maturidi lived during the time of Abu Al-Hasan Al-Ash’ari, but they had major differences with each other, for the latter was closer to the Sunnah than Al-Maturidi was and in various ways. To add, where Al-Maturidi supported the clear texts of the Quran and Sunnah, he took this stance from the Salaf and from Hanafi scholars who followed the way of the Salaf. But his reliance on philosophy and logic in addition to the religious innovations he promoted, stained his efforts in defending Islam against Mu`tazilah and Jahmiyyah. Moreover, denying Allah’s Uluhiyyah led his followers to later become grave worshippers, due -in part- to the fact that their leader did not affirm Tau’heed Al-Uluhiyyah, which requires Allah’s creation to dedicate all acts of worship to Allah alone. In summary, Al-Maturidi himself and many scholars who followed his logic-based methodology, had a combination of Sunnah and bid`ah in them. Their innovations and later succumbing to grave worship, overshadowed the efforts they had in refuting Mu`tazilah and Jahmiyyah, and also their efforts in hadeeth and fiqh.
Three different creeds competing with each other and not always complementing each other, came to save Islam as Hamza Yusuf claims. This is how Hamzah Yusuf belittles the creed that Allah, in His Quran, and Prophet Muhammad, in his Sunnah, explained in beautiful and clear details. Allah, the Exalted, filled His Quran with description of Him using the most eloquent language and self-explanatory terms that ever existed. The Prophet of Allah, blessings and mercy on him, also described Allah in his eloquent and clear statements and, and so often invoked Allah by His names and attributes. The Islamic creed is powerful. The Islamic creed saves the heart and the mind from the ills of shirk, kufr, downgrading Allah to the level of creation, equating Him with creation, and denying His attributes and names. The Islamic creed saves. The Islamic creed never needs saving.
Jalal Abualrub (www.IslamLife.com)