In this section, I will write about Tafsir of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi based on his Ta’wilat al-Qur’an, and also based on Abd al-Karim al-Jili’s Qur’anic interpretations from his works such as Al-Ghāyāt fī Ma‘rifat Ma‘ānī al-Āyāt wa-l-Aḥādith al-Mutashābihāt (The Ultimate Goals, on Knowledge of the Meanings of the Ambiguous Verses and Prophetic Traditions).
Reciprocal Imposition
What is a reciprocal imposition?
As I prepare for my talk at a German university in October of 2022, something came to my mind this morning (September 14, 2022). My presentation is about a 10th century Muslim theologian from Samarkand – Abu Mansur al-Maturidi al-Samarqandi, known as Maturidi. I analyze Muaturidi’s views based on humanistic principles such as human equality, human freedom, and human potential. This is to say, I examine whether Maturidi thinks human beings as equal, particularly women, and non-Muslims. I also investigate whether he believes that human beings possess ability to act freely and have capacity to achieve their potential. I read his Qur’anic exegetical work called Ta’wilat al-Qur’an (Qur’anic interpretations), and his other works such as Kitab al-Tawhid (The Book of Unicity) in Arabic and secondary sources about him and his works in Uzbek, English, Persian and at times in Russian and French.
I usually get questioned at conferences or at my ‘job talks’ why in the world I am imposing current principles onto the past. This is a legitimate question. However, what we need to ask first is: Why are we bringing ideas from the past to the present? In other words, currently one can find numerous scholarly books and articles on why Maturidi is the best thinker with ideas and a doctrine about human intellectual actualization, that can be applied to our present time. This is to say, if we are going to bring something – an idea or anything else – from the past to apply in the present, we should have every right to measure those ideas with today’s standards. This is what I mean by a reciprocal imposition. If we are bringing Maturidi’s ideas for application in our present time, we should measure his ideas based on today’s standards. Afterall, the ones who are alive own the present. For that reason, we should not hesitate to question the ideas from the past based on the current standards. In a similar manner, our present ideas become ideas of the past one day, and their applicability become contingent upon the people of the future, who will be alive.
Muslims are encouraged to have diverse views
God says in the Qur’an to the Prophet Muhammad (SAW): “Remind them as you are a reminder. You are not their ruler (Q88: 21-22).” This means that human beings are free to do what they want, and prophets do not rule them; prophets are there to bring messages and remind people of those messages. If a prophet, with a high status, is not a ruler, no other human can be a ruler to someone else. This is to say, the human freedom to express views is guaranteed by the Qur’an.
And diversity of views is of paramount importance for any civilization, society, and community. Bruce Mazlish (2005), the author of the book called Contents of Civilization,writes that civilizations develop when they incorporate diverse views and welcome ideas from external sources. Conversely, civilizations collapse when they become self-conceited or become too haughty to accept ideas from external sources. Mazlish provides examples of how empires collapsed specifically because they closed themselves to ideas from ‘outsiders.’ The same can be said about the decline of Islamic civilizations because of ‘cleansing’ from external ideas such as Greek philosophy, or Christian and Jewish juxtapositions. Today some Muslims even become suspicious to talk about other religions or ideas external traditions.
What is remarkable about Maturidi is that he speaks his mind based on his time and place, and most of what he says are useful in our present time (more on it in my next blog, in sha’Allah). The key word that distinguishes Maturidi’s doctrine based on his Qura’nic interpretations is possibilities (I am not quoting President Biden here). If you read his Ta’wilat al-Qur’an, you will see yourself. In other words, if some Central Asian interpreters of the Qur’an give one meaning to the verse, he offers several possibilities or ways to understand that verse. It is important to note that he bends some Qur’anic verses to fit them to his argument based on his time and place and based on whom he is engaging in debates or rebuttals. Especially, his views about non-Muslims usually are not very different from what we hear from puritanical Muslims. However, the way he critically approaches Islamic theological, legal, and philosophical matters are of use today, not only according to many scholars both academic and non-academic.
Final thoughts
Scholar’s job is to construct something physical, such as a book or an article, after ruminating metaphysically in an intellectual world based on what he or she read, heard, saw, observed etc. The process is not straightforward like making a cake or a car. This is to say, ideas are also ‘materials,’ and we see how they function from Putin’s war in Ukraine to the concept of ‘fake news.’ Ideas are loaded and occupy our intellectual space and sometimes cause severe problems. Questioning them and thinking about them, especially when it comes to matters of ideas or ideologies, are crucial.
Finally, I was born in the time of the Soviet regime and went to school until I was 15 years old. One thing I remember from my Soviet education is that we always had one answer to one question; it is like a communist standard. What my American education taught me is that there is never one answer to one question – there are always possibilities. This is exactly why American needs democrats, republicans, independents, etc. so that possibilities do not end. This is the bedrock of American endurance; without it, the US will become like any other empire.
Thank you so much for reading my blog!
Dr. Rahimjon Abdugafurov PhD
Toward Humanistic Ideals 