Abu Ishaq al-Isfara'ini

Abu Ishaq al-Isfara'ini
Personal Details
Born Abu'l-Hasan Ali ibn Fadl ibn Ahmad Isfaraini
Isfahan, Iran
Died AH 418 (1027/1028)[1]
Religion Islam
Denomination Sunni
Jurisprudence Shafi`i[2][3]
Creed Ash'ari[2][4][5]
Main interest(s) Theology (Kalam), philosophy, logic, Islamic jurisprudence

Abu Ishaq al-Isfara'ini was a medieval Sunni Islamic theologian, Shafi'i jurist, legal theoretician[3] and commentator on the Qur'an. al-Isfara'ini's scholarship was focused on the sciences of Aqidah, Hadith and Fiqh. He was along with Ibn Furak the chief propagator of Sunni Ash'ari theology in Nishapur at the turn of the 5th Islamic century.[2]

Biography

Al-Isfara'ini was born in the town of Isfarayin in northwestern Khurasan. There is little known of his childhood except that he received a comprehensive Islamic education centered on Islamic jurisprudence, Islamic theology, and Aqidah (creed). In his youth, al-Isfara'ini traveled to Baghdad to further his studies and attended the lectures of some of the most famous Sunni scholars of his time including Bahili, Baqillani and Ibn Furak.[2]

Al-Isfara'ini then chose to leave Baghdad and return to his native town of Isfarayin despite the esteem and favour shown to him by the scholars of Iraq.[7] Later he accepted an invitation to Nishapur, where a school was built for him.[2] From 411 AH he held sessions teaching hadith in the congregational mosque of Nishapur.[8]

Views

Al-Isfara'ini adhered to the Sunni Ash'ari school of theology and spent much of his time refuting the views of the Karramiyya sect who held anthropomorphic views of God.[8]

Death

Al-Isfara'ini died in the Islamic month of Muharram in 418 AH (February 1027 CE), and was buried in Isfarayin. His tomb continued to attract pious visitors in the 6th/12th century.[8]

References

  1. 1 2 Ephrat, Daphna (2000). A Learned Society in a Period of Transition: The Sunni 'Ulama' of Eleventh-Century Baghdad (SUNY series in Medieval Middle East History). State University of New York Press. p. 52. ISBN 079144645X.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Lewis, B.; Menage, V.L.; Pellat, Ch.; Schacht, J. (1997) [1st. pub. 1978]. Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition). Volume IV (Iran-Kha). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. p. 107. ISBN 9004078193.
  3. 1 2 Jonathan A.C. Brown (2007), The Canonization of al-Bukhārī and Muslim: The Formation and Function of the Sunnī Ḥadīth Canon, p.156. Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-9004158399.
  4. ↑ Khalil, Mohammad Hassan (2013). Between Heaven and Hell: Islam, Salvation, and the Fate of Others. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN 0199945411.
  5. ↑ Schmidtke, Sabine (2012). Ibn Ḥazm of Cordoba: The Life and Works of a Controversial Thinker. (Brill Publishers). p. 383. ISBN 9004243100.
  6. ↑ Adang, Camilla; Fierro, Maribel; Schmidtke, Sabine (2012). Ibn Hazm of Cordoba: The Life and Works of a Controversial Thinker (Handbook of Oriental Studies) (Handbook of Oriental Studies: Section 1; The Near and Middle East). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers. p. 387. ISBN 978-90-04-23424-6.
  7. ↑ Ephrat, Daphna (2000). A Learned Society in a Period of Transition: The Sunni 'Ulama' of Eleventh-Century Baghdad (SUNY series in Medieval Middle East History). State University of New York Press. p. 66. ISBN 079144645X.
  8. 1 2 3 Lewis, B.; Menage, V.L.; Pellat, Ch.; Schacht, J. (1997) [1st. pub. 1978]. Encyclopaedia of Islam (New Edition). Volume IV (Iran-Kha). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. p. 108. ISBN 9004078193.
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