Between Theology and Creed

Abstract

In the seventh century (CE), the stark realities of Islam’s role in the sociopolitical sphere necessitated, almost immediately, a range of theological debates. This, in turn, served as one of the chief catalysts for the development of ’ilm al-kalam and its dominant Sunni schools, the Ash’arites and Maturidites. The new political experiments of the postcolonial Middle East, which abandoned centuries of imperial systems for a new political unit, the modern nation-state, initiated similar developments. However, this renewed twentieth-century political engagement, taking place in the absence of active theological discourse, has also meant that these developments have remained in their most fragile infancy and that many of the earliest theological debates in Islamic history, such as the question of takfir (accusation of apostasy), are being forced to play out once again in all their painful bloodiness, even as the solutions, or at least the necessary components, lie dormant in dusty forgotten tomes. Over the course of Islamic history, Atharis have seldom achieved significant political power, and even when they did their rule generally proved catastrophic. Successful and vibrant Muslim societies, we find, typically had recourse to theology, presiding over places where theologians of different varieties, whether Maturidite, Mu’tazilite, or Ash‘arite, responded to the numerous dilemmas inherent in governing a complex and multifarious populace.