Imam Maturidi's Criticism of the Shiites: Example of the Badā Thought

The concept of Badā, meaning that an event predicted by Allah will occur in a certain way and then occur in another way, is one of the most controversial topics among the religious sects of Islam. Our study focuses on Imam Māturīdī's approach to the verses he interpreted while attempting to establish the belief in Badā held by the Shiites. Our aim is to bring forth what method Imam Maturidi used to interpret the relevant verses and how he rejected the method used by the Shiites in interpreting the Badā verses. The views of Imam Māturīdī, a scholar of the Ahl al-Sunnah, on this understanding, which is one of the characteristic features of the Shiites, are very important for the History of Islamic Sects discipline. We can see the reflections of Badā concept understanding in Imam Mâtürîdî in the Tafsir book he wrote. For this reason, our study is framed within the framework of Imam Mâtürîdî's work Teʾvîlâtü'l-Ḳurʾân. While Imam Mâtürîdî highlights his own ideas in Teʾvîlâtü'l-Ḳurʾân, he also addresses the concepts of other sects from time to time. In this sense, one of the topics he deals with is understanding of Badā. In his commentary he clearly rejects the Shiite understanding of Badā. He did not adopt the way of interpreting the verses to support the Shia belief in Badā, but interpreted the relevant verses in a completely different way. In doing so, he showed that he thought differently than the Shiites.