Abu Mansur Maturidi - Works

Works

When al-Maturidi was growing up there was an emerging reaction against some schools within Islam, notably Mu'tazilis, Qarmati, and Shi'a. The Sunni scholars who were following Abu Hanifa. Al-Maturidi with other two preeminent scholars wrote especially on the creed of Islam and elaborated Abu Hanifa's doctrine, the other two being Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari in Iraq, and Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Tahawi in Egypt.

While Al-Ash'ari and Al-Tahawi were Sunni together with Al-Maturidi, they constructed their own theologies diverging slightly from Abu Hanifa's school. Al-Ash'ari, enunciated that God creates the individual's power (qudra), will, and the actual act giving way to a fatalist school of theology, which was later put in a consolidated form by Al Ghazali. Al Maturidi, followed in Abu Hanifa's footsteps, and presented the "notion that God was the creator of man’s acts, although man possessed his own capacity and will to act". Al Maturidi and Al-Ash'ari also separated from each other in the issue of the attributes of God, as well as some other minor issues.

Later, with the impact of Turkish states such as Great Seljuq Empire and Ottoman Empire, Hanafi-Maturidi school spread to greater areas where the Hanafi school of law is prevalent, such as Afghanistan, Central Asia, South Asia, Balkan, Russia, China, Caucasus and Turkey.

Maturidi had immense knowledge of dualist beliefs (Sanawiyya) and of other old Persian religions. His "Kitäb al-tawhld" in this way has become a primary source for modern researchers with its rich materials about Iranian Manicheanism (Mâniyya), a group of Brahmans (Barähima), and some controversial personalities such as Ibn al-Rawandi, Muhammad al Warraq, and Muhammad b. Shabib.