wikishia:Featured Article/2016/52

Ash'arism (Arabic:الأشعرية) or Al-Ashʿariyya is a theological school of Sunni Islam that is based on the theological ideas of Abu l-Hasan al-Ash'ari (b. 260/873-4 d. 324/936). In the beginning of his scientific journey, He was Mu'tazili but after a while he was seeking a moderate way between radical rationalism of Mu'tazila and anti-rationalism of Ahl al-Hadith. His efforts resulted in acceptance of the ideas of Ahl al-Hadith along with rational explanation for them. However, he wasn't successful for solving some basic problems of the ideas of Ahl al-Hadith like determinism (Jabriyya).

Nowadays most of the Sunnis follow Ash'arism in theological creed. The characteristics that differentiate Ash'arism from other theological schools are as follows:

• God's attributes are separate from his essence,
• Human is not free in creation of his actions but he acquires them,
• The good and evil could be understood from religious teaching, not from rational reasoning,
• God will be visible (by eyes) in hereafter,
• Sinner person is still Muslim (he doesn't lose his faith because of committing sin), Read more...