The Relationship Between Religion and Politics in Imam Al-Maturidi

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Discussions regarding the relationship between religion and politics are located under the chapter entitled "Imamat and Caliphate" in Islamic Theology books. Especially, sunni theologians deal with this issue as a reaction to Shi'ite theologians who consider Imamat (religio-political leadership) as one of the basic tenets of religion. Al-Maturidi, one of the most prominent Muslim theologians does not specifically wrestle with this issue in his works. Although Imam al-Maturidi does not have a separate chapter for the issue of "Imamat and Caliphate" in his books, this does not mean that he is not interested in this topic. As a matter of fact, in his books Kitab al-Tawhid and Kitab Ta'wilat al-Qur'an, he mentioned topics related to religion and politics such as freedom of religion and consicence, emanet (entrustment), competent (ehliyet), justice, counceling (shura), allegiance, obedience, management, promoting good and prohibiting evil, and juridical decision making. All of these issues are still relevant to modern Islamic political thought. Thus, I suggest, studying al-Maturidi's religious and political thoughts will shed light on contemporary Islamic political thought, and provide new approaches to deal with these matters.