The Attribute of Takwīn in Ḥanafī-Māturīdī Theology: The Eighth Attribute and the Divide with the Ashʿarīs

Asroriddin Djalilov

doi:10.57033/h9gs6059

Keywords

takwīn divine attributes Māturīdism Ashʿarism essential attributes attributes of act eternity kalām Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī Abū al-Muʿīn al-Nasafī

Abstract

The article examines the attribute of takwīn - the divine act of bringing into being - in Ḥanafī-Māturīdī theology and the doctrinal divide it created between the Māturīdīs and the Ashʿarīs. Both schools accept the seven attributes of meaning; the Māturīdīs add takwīn as an eighth essential attribute, eternal and subsisting in the divine essence, whereas the Ashʿarīs assign it to the attributes of act and treat it as conceptual rather than real. Four points of contention are analysed: the division of attributes into essential and active, the Ashʿarī criterion of defect together with the Māturīdī objection to it, the claim that takwīn is reducible to power, and the identification of takwīn with the created object. It is argued that the Māturīdī position rests on a single principle applied consistently - the attribute is eternal while its object is originated - and that this same principle answers the charge that an eternal takwīn entails an eternal world. The primary texts are read alongside the recent analysis of al-Dibo (2018).

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