Al-Shahrastani


Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Fath Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Karīm ash-Shahrastānī, also known as Muhammad al-Shahrastānī, was an influential Persian historian of religions, a historiographer, Islamic scholar, philosopher and theologian. His book, Kitab al–Milal wa al-Nihal was one of the pioneers in developing an objective and philosophical approach to the study of religions.

Life

Very few things are known about al-Shahrastānī's life. He was born in 1086 CE A.H., in the town of Shahristān, where he acquired his early traditional education. Later, he was sent to Nīshāpūr where he studied under different masters who were all disciples of the Ash`ari theologian al-Juwaynī. At the age of thirty, al-Shahrastānī went to Baghdad to pursue theological studies and taught for three years at the prestigious Ash`ari school, al-Nizāmiyya. Afterwards, he returned to Persia where he worked as Nā’ib of the chancellery for Sanjar, the Saljūq ruler of Khurāsān. At the end of his life, al-Shahrastānī went back to live in his native town, where he died in the year 1153.

Works

Al-Shahrastani distinguished himself by his desire to describe in the most objective way the universal religious history of humanity.
This is reflected in his Kitab al-Milal wa al-Nihal, a monumental work, which presents the doctrinal points of view of all the religions and philosophies which existed up to his time. The book was one of the earliest systematic studies of religion, and is noted for its non-polemical style and scientific approach. A French translation of the book by Gimaret, Monnot and Jolivet was sponsored by UNESCO.
Al-Shahrastani's philosophical and theological thoughts manifested in his other major works, which include:
Al-Shahrastani's own beliefs are difficult to categorize because he juggled many different philosophical and theological vocabularies. He was a clever thinker, demonstrated by the intricacies of many traditions and the Shi`ite notion of the 'Guide' found in his thoughts. Al-Shahrastani had many reasons to speak somewhat allegorically. He was a very subtle author who often spoke indirectly by means of symbols. He preferred his own personal vocabulary to the traditional one. For this reason, his position is hard to determine. It may well be that ideological considerations led him to speak indirectly; he perhaps assumed those familiar with the symbols would be able to unravel his elusive ideas. For all these reasons, many scholars who have studied al-Shahrastani were misled concerning his religious identity.
Though al-Shahrastani is generally regarded as a Sunni-Ash'ari theologian, he had been accused by his contemporaries, al-Khwarazmi and al-Sam'ani, of being drawn to the "people of the mountain fortresses", i.e. the Nizari Isma'ilis of Alamut . This view is supported by modern scholars, such as Muhammad Ridā Jalālī Nā’īnī, Muhammad Taqī Dānish-Pazhūh, Wilferd Madelung, Jean Jolivet, Guy Monnot, and Diana Steigerwald who characterize his works as belonging to the Isma'ili tradition, while attributing his public Ash'arism and Shafi'ism to the practice of taqiyya, since Ismā`īlis were persecuted during that time.
Among the Sunnis apparently attracted by the “new preaching” was the heresiographer and Ash'ari theologian Al-Shahrastani. Although he kept his relations with the Nizariyah secret, they were revealed by his student Al-Sam'ani. Among his extant writings are some crypto-Ismaili works including an incomplete Qur'an commentary in which he used Ismaili terminology and hinted at his conversion by a “pious servant of God” who had taught him the esoteric principles of Qur'anic exegesis. Most notable, however, is his refutation of the theological doctrine of the philosopher Ibn Sina from a concealed Ismaili point of view, entitled Kitab Al-musara'ah. Here he defended the Ismaili thesis that God, as the giver of being, is beyond being and nonbeing, rejected Avicenna’s description of God as the involuntary necessitating cause of the world, and suggested that the Active Intellect which brings the human intellect from potentiality to actuality is the prophetic intellect rather than the intellect of the lunar sphere as held by the followers of Avicenna.

Philosophy

As opposed to Ash'arites, al-Shahrastani presents a gradation in the creation. He gives a definition of the Prophetic Impeccability opposed to the Ash`arite tradition, maintaining that it subsists in the Prophet as part of his real nature. As did al-Ghazzali, al-Shahrastani harshly criticizes Avicenna's Necessary Being who knows the universal but not the particular. Al-Shahrastani, particularly in the Musara`a al-Falasifa, has an Isma'ili conception of the Originator beyond Being and non-Being. He argues convincingly for the existence of Divine Attributes, but he does not ascribe them directly to God. True worship means Tawhid - declaring the Unicity of God. This includes the negation of all attributes which humans give to God, the Ultimate One who is totally transcendent. God is Unknowable, Indefinable, Unattainable, and above human comprehension.
As for the theory of creation, in the Nihaya, al-Shahrastani insists that God is the only Creator and the only Agent. He also develops a different interpretation of ex-nihilo creation which does not mean creation out of nothing, but creation made only by God. In the Majlis and the Mafatih al-Asrar, the angels play a dominant role in the physical creation. His theory of the Divine Word has a convincing Isma'ili imprint; for example, his hierarchy of angels and Divine Words are conceived as being the causes of spiritual beings. Al-Shahrastani in the Nihaya writes:
"... his Command is pre-existent and his multiple Kalimat are eternal. By his Command, Kalimat become the manifestation of it. Spiritual beings are the manifestation of Kalimat and bodies are the manifestation of spiritual beings. The Ibda` and khalq become manifested spiritual beings and bodies. As for Kalimat and letters, they are eternal and pre-existent. Since his Command is not similar to our command, his Kalimat and his letters are not similar to our Kalimat. Since letters are elements of Kalimat which are the causes of spiritual beings who govern corporeal beings; all existence subsists in the Kalimat Allah preserved in his Command."

In the Majlis, al-Shahrastani divides the creation into two worlds – the spiritual world in an achieved state and the world of physical creation in becoming. He shares an Isma`ili cosmology in which God has built his religion in the image of creation.
The conception of Prophecy developed in the Nihaya is closer to that of Isma`ilis and Falasifa than to Ash`arites, because al-Shahrastani establishes a logical link between miracles and Prophetic Impeccability. For al-Shahrastani, the proof of veracity of the Prophet is intrinsic to his nature and is related to his Impeccability. He develops the concept of cyclical time explicitly in the Milal, the Majlis, and the Mafatih and implicitly in the Nihaya. In the Majlis, his understanding of the dynamic evolution of humanity is similar to Isma`ilism, in which each Prophet opens a new cycle. Al-Shahrastani recovers the mythical Qur'anic story of Moses and the Servant of God inspired by Al-Risala al-Mudhhiba of al-Qadi al-Nu'man.
Al-Shahrastani was an able and learned man of great personal charm. The real nature of his thought is best referred to by the term theosophy, in the older sense of "divine wisdom". However, al-Shahrastani was certainly not totally against theology or philosophy, even if he was very harsh against the theologians and the philosophers. As he explained in the Majlis, in order to remain on the right path, one must preserve a perfect equilibrium between intellect and audition. A philosopher or a theologian must use his intellect until he reaches the rational limit. Beyond this limit, he must listen to the teaching of Prophets and Imams.
His works reflect a complex interweaving of intellectual strands, and his thought is a synthesis of this fruitful historical period. In his conception of God, Creation, Prophecy, and Imama, al Shahrastani adopted many doctrinal elements that are reconcilable with Nizari Isma'ilism. The necessity of a Guide, belonging both to the spiritual and the physical world, is primordial in his scheme since the Imam is manifested in this physical world.

Christian commentary

In Kitab al-Milal wa al-Nihal, al-Shahrastani records a portrayal of Christianity very close to the orthodox tenets while continuing the Islamic narrative:
“The Christians. the community of the Christ, Jesus, son of Mary. He it is who was truly sent after Moses, and who was announced in the Torah. To him were manifest signs and notable evidences, such as the reviving of the dead and the curing of the blind and the leper. His very nature and innate disposition are a perfect sign of his truthfulness; that is, his coming without previous seed and his speaking without prior teaching. For all the prophets the arrival of their revelation was at forty years, but revelation came to him when he was made to speak in the cradle, and revelation came to him when he conveyed at thirty. The duration of his mission was three years and three months and three days.”

Al-Shahrastani also explains the differences between Christians in Kitab al-Milal wa al-Nihal regarding the incarnation :
“They affirmed that God has three hypostases. They said that the Creator is one substance, meaning by this what is self-subsistent, not spatial location and physical magnitude; and he is one in substantiality, three in hypostaticity. By the hypostases they mean the attributes, such as existence, life and knowledge, and the father, the son and the holy spirit. The knowledge clothes itself and was incarnated, but not the other hypostases.”