İmam Matüridî

Scholar of Fiqh, Philosopher, Poet

Other Names
Muhammed bin Mahmud Ebu Mansur al-Semerkandî el-Matüridî el-Hanefî (tam adı), Ebu Mansur el-Matüridî, İmâmü'l-hüda, Âlemü'l-hüda, İmamü’l-mütekellim

Religion scholar, founder of the Matüridî sect (B. middle of the IX. Century, Matürid village / Samarkand – D. 944, Samarkand). His full name was Muhammed bin Mahmud Ebu Mansur al-Semerkandî el-Matüridî el-Hanefî. He was known by the name of Ebu Mansur el-Matüridi. Also known with the alias İmâmü'l-hüda (guidance leader), Âlemü'l-hüda (guidance torch), İmamü’l-mütekellim (leader of Islamic theologians). He was a scholar of religion who grew in Turkish culture and mostly known among the Turks. There are different opinions about the exact date of birth of Imam Matüridî, whose information of life is unknown. According to one of these opinions, he was born around the year 852 due to being a student of Muhammed b. Mukatil er-Râzî who died around the year 862.

İmam Matüridî lived in the period when Samanoğulları ruled in Transoxiana that could be called the period of independent principalities with the weakening of power of the Abbasid caliphate. Although there is not abroad information about his education in the sources, it is known that he took courses on various topics from the teachers of the period.

The most comprehensive work on faith principles (akaid) of Matüridî, who worked on the foundations of religion, was the "Kitab üt-Tevhid". According to this work, there were two means that would be referred while learning, one of them was the transfer and the other was the mind. The meaning of the transfer was "Koran" and the sunnah. "Koran" came the first and foremost, Matüridî had a method in understanding of the "Koran" which was different than the Selefiyye, Mu'tazilite sects and some philosophers. Selefiyye gave priority to the transfer rather than mind and allowed the explanation of the “Koran” in the light of the hadith; it didn’t allow interpretations based on philosophy and te'vil (accepting the word or behavior in another meaning rather than its visible meaning). Mu’tezile left the meaning, in other words “Koran” and accepted the mind as the basis if the “Koran” and the mind conflicted with each other. According to some philosophers, the truth was known only with the mind, “Koran” was generally interpreted in accordance with rational data. As mentioned earlier, according to Matüridî, it was required to trust the transfer as the source of religion (“Koran”) and the mind equally. Matüridî described the religion with an embracing approach rather than being unlikable in a way that didn’t harm to the universality of Islam. For this reason, he tolerated the differences of views that were not about the essence of religion, he didn’t exclude the owners of those views from religion. He didn’t force the people who didn’t share his view. He used “the mind” and “the transfer” in a balanced manner: “Mind is one of the sources of information, a divine escrow given to man. People know the beauty and ugliness by their mind; they understand their own superiority through it. Man makes a mistake if he doesn’t use his mind.” The orders of Allah, addressed the wise. “The ones who do not have the level of intelligence to understand Allah's commandments are excluded from the divine commandments, they are not responsible".

According to Matüridî, human "is created with physiological structure as well as having the mind; he stands out with the ability to manage the creatures, he is distinguished (exclusive) by using the mind to master them by enduring every kind of challenges”. That is because, "the mind is the most powerful weapon of appeal ability.”

As a result, Matüridî didn’t approach to the religion in a way far from mind, science, tolerance and fanaticism (with a distant attitude). He tolerated the differences of action and worship which didn’t pertain to the main principles of faith (not on the merits); he treated everyone as believers who bore witness to the words and turned to the Qibla. But Allah clearly stated in the “Koran” that only the ones who wanted to reach the Allah were the "Right Believers", only these believers had the takva (fear of Allah to avoid sin) that formed the oneness and only people who wanted to reach Allah would enter the paradise. He advocated that it was required to not interference in the worship and affairs of people unless they were in a clear denial. This meant that the act was not included in the purpose (behavior, movement). So, Matüridî didn’t enforce people to obey his principles and views like Mu'tazilite and Kharijites. He took the “There is no compulsion in religion” approach as the basis.

Matüridî adopted the path and method of Abu Hanifa (D. 767) who was considered as the "Patriarch of the Iraqi fiqh sect”. According to Abu Hanifa, “everything in favor of and against the man is included in the science of fiqh”. The problems of the belief of human and his actions constituted the subject matter of the fiqh (Islamic law). For this reason, Abu Hanifa named his kalam (theology) book as “el-Fıkıh ül-Ekber”. Matüridî, who was considered as the student of Abu Hanifa, considered both the belief (faith), science of Allah and the aspects of human actions (practical) in the fiqh.

For this reason, Matüridî was included in the group that gave importance to the mind and comparison and that was called the supporters of “re’y” in the history of fiqh. Later, this became the name of the branch of science that comprehended the information and decisions related with the branches of the religion (the second important) and the actions in the mortal life.

There is a detailed work of Matüridî about interpretation. Kâtip Çelebi gave the name of this book as “Te’vilat ül-Maturiyyeti fî Beyani Usuli Ehlis-Sünneti ve Usul it-Tevhid”. There are some people who also call this book with the title “Te’vilatu Ehl is-Sünne”. We have said that Matüridî had a method separated from the "Koran" in the subject of knowledge of the religion. For philosophers, the truth was known and found by the mind. Matüridî used the acumen method for the first time in the interpretation book “Te’vilat ül-Kuran” he left to us, which was about the interpretation of the "Koran". However, he used the word “te’vil” rather than “tefsir” in his interpretation of the "Koran". According to him “tefsir” was giving a definite judgment about the thing that was required to be understood from the word of Allah. But the word "te'vil" was to choose one of the possibilities. Here, there was no place for showing the Allah as a witness and assuming one’s own views as the wish of Allah. Basically it was not absolutism; it was the relativity in question.

Matüridî followed the path of Abu Hanifa and didn’t leave the line of Ahl al-Sunnah until his death. Following his death, he was buried in the cemetery where the scholars were buried in the Cakerdîze neighborhood of Samarkand. In 2005, a shrine was built over his grave. Although it is known that Matüridî revealed more than sixty works, we don’t have all of them today.

MAIN WORKS:

FIQH: Kitab et–Tevhid, Risale fi’l’akaid, Şeru’l-fıkı’l-ekber, Redd-i Evâili’l-Edile li’l-Ka’bi, Reddu’l-Usûli’l-Hamse li’l-Bahili, Reddu Kitabi’l-İmam li ba’di’r–revafıd, er-Redd’ale’l-karamita, Reddü kitabi’l-Ka’bi fi va’idi’l-füssak, Beyanü vehmi’l-Mu’tezile, Kitab el-makalât Kitabu tefsiri’l-esma’ ve’s-sıfat.

PRACTICE: Me’ahizü’ş-şerai fi usuli’l-fıkh, el-Cedel fi usuli’l-fıkh, edü Dürer fi usuli’d-din, el-Usul.

INTERPRETATION: Te’vilatü’l-Kur’an, Risale fi ma la yecuzü’l-vakfu aleyhi fi’l-Kur’an.

POETRY: Vasaya ve Münacat

REFERENCE: Hilmi Ziya Ülken / Millet ve Tarih Şuuru (1948), Amiran Kurtkan / Türk Milletinin Manevi Kaynakları (1977), İbrahim Bıçakçı / Imâm el-Matüridî, Büyük Larousse (c. 13,s. 7870, 1986), Ana Britannica (c. 15, 435, 1987), Abdullah Manaz / Dünyada ve Türkiye’de Siyasi İslâmcılık, (1998), Hanifi Özcan / Matüridi'de Bilgi Problemi (1998), M. Sait Yazıcıoğlu / Matüridî ve Nesefî’ye Göre ‘İnsan Hürriyeti’ Kavramı (1988), Sönmez Kutlu / İmam Matüridi ve Matüridilik (2003),  Şükrü Özen / TDV İslam Ansiklopedisi (c. 28, s.146-165, 2003), İhsan Işık / Ünlü Bilim Adamları (Türkiye Ünlüleri Ansiklopedisi, C. 2, 2013) - Encyclopedia of Turkey’s Famous People (2013) - Resimli ve Metin Örnekli Türkiye Edebiyatçılar ve Kültür Adamları Ansiklopedisi (C. 12, 2017).

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