Determinism and Freedom in Islamic Theology: The Ḥanafī-Māturīdī Tradition, 900-1350

Abstract

The dissertation explores Ḥanafī-Māturīdī philosophical theology as it expressed itself on the vexed issue of free will and divine predestination. The project is one that historically engages the textual sources while also taking seriously the philosophical predilections of its authors and the arguments and stances they espouse. It charts the predominant modes in which the question of free will and divine predestination was conceptualized beginning around the time of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) and ending at the turn of the fourteenth century with Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (d. 722/1322) and Ṣadr al-Sharīʿa al-Maḥbūbī (d. 747/1346). The following questions are addressed: To what extent were Ḥanafī-Māturīdī theologians committed to occasionalism, the notion that God is the true cause of events in the world? Were Ḥanafī-Māturīdī theologians willing to acknowledge other efficacious causes besides or alongside God? How did Ḥanafī-Māturīdīs reconcile the distinction between voluntary human action and involuntary bodily movement? To what extent did theologians who self-identified as “Māturīdī” agree on such issues?