Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad

ʿAbd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbar al-Hamadani al-Asadabadi, Abu ʿl-Hasan (935 – 1025) was a Mu'tazilite theologian, a follower of the Shafi‘i school.[1] Abd al-Jabbar means "servant of the powerful."[2] He was born in Asadabad near Hamadan, Iran. He settled in Baghdad, until he was invited to Rey in 367 AH/978 CE by its governor, Sahib ibn Abbad, a staunch supporter of the Mu'tazila. He was appointed chief Qadi of the province. On the death of ibn 'Abbad, he was deposed and arrested by the ruler, Fakhr al-Dawla, because of a slighting remark made by him about his deceased benefactor. He died later in 415 AH/1025 CE.

His comprehensive "summa" of speculative theology, the Mughni, presented Mu`tazili thought under the two headings of God's oneness (tawhid) and his justice (adl). He argued that the Ash'arite separation between the eternal speech of God and the created words of the Qur'an made God's will unknowable.

Works

He was the author of more than 70 books.[3]

Tathbit Dala’il

Abd Al-Jabbar produced an anti-Christian polemic text Tathbit Dala’il Nubuwwat Sayyidina Muhammad, (‘The Establishment of Proofs for the Prophethood of Our Master Mohammed’).[4]

English translations
  • Critique of Christian Origins: a parallel English-Arabic text, edited, translated, and annotated by Gabriel Said Reynolds and Samir Khalil Samir, Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 2010.

Notes
  1. Jane Dammen McAuliffe. Encyclopaedia of the Qurʼān. 2003, volume 3. Page 439. Article by Claude Gilliot.
  2. Juan Eduardo Campo. Encyclopedia of Islam (2009). Page 515. "The Quran states, “The most beautiful names belong to God (allah) so call on him by them; but shun such men as use profanity in his names: for what they ... of God), Abd al-Salam (Servant of Peace), or Abd al-Jabbar (Servant of the Powerful)."
  3. Kifayat Ullah, Al-Kashshaf: Al-Zamakhshari's Mu'tazilite Exegesis of the Qur'an, de Gruyter (2017), p. 110
  4. 'Abd al-Jabbar, Tathbit dalailal- nubuwwa, ed. 'A. 'Uthman, 2 vols., Beirut 1966

References
    • Abu Sa'id al-Bayhaqi, Sharh 'Uyun al-Masa'il, MS Leiden, Landberg t15, fol. 1t3v—1t5v, whence Ibn al-Murtada, (al-Mu'tazila, Arnold), 66 ff.
    • al-khatib al-Baghdadi,qTa'rikh Baghdad, xi, 113 ff.
    • al-Subki, tabaqat, iii, 114, t19-t0
    • Ibn al-Athir, viii, 510-1, ix, 77-8, t35, x, 95
    • I. Goldziher, Isl., 191t, t14
    • M. Horten, Die philosophischen Systeme, 457-6t
    • A. S. Tritton, Muslim Theology, 191-3. -- 'Abd al-Jabbar's tabaqat al-Mu'tazila was the main source of Abu Sa'id al-Bayhaqi's important historical account of the Mu'tazila in the introduction of his Sharh 'Uyun al-Masa'il. Al-Bayhaqi's account was taken over, in a slightly abbreviated form, by Ibn al-Murtada (ed. Th. W. Arnold).
    • W. Madelung. "ʿABD-AL-JABBĀR B. AḤMAD". Encyclopaedia Iranica.
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