ABU MUHAMMAD AL-JUWAYNI
By Dr. G.F. Haddad
Al-Juwayni, `Abd Allah ibn Yusuf ibn `Abd Allah
ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Hayyuya, Rukn al-Din Abu Muhammad al-Ta'i
al-Sinbisi al-Naysaburi al-Shafi`i al-Ash`ari (d. 438), the peerless
Imam, foremost jurist and scholar of principles, commentator of Qur'an,
man of letters, grammarian, and father of Imam al-Haramayn. He took fiqh
principally in Naysabur from Abu al-Tayyib al-Su`luki and in Marw from
Abu Bakr al-Qaffal al-Marwazi, hadith from Abu Nu`aym al-Isfarayini,
Ibn Mahmish, Abu al-Husayn ibn Bishran, and others, and began to isfatwassue
, teach, and debate in the year 407. He became famous for his assiduous
worship and the great dignity, majesty, and earnestness of his
scholarly gatherings. Abu `Uthman al-Sabuni said: "If Shaykh Abu
Muhammad had been born among the Israelites, they would have
transmitted his immense merits to us and he would have made their
pride." Ibn `Asakir narrates from his maternal uncle, `Abd al-Wahid ibn
`Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri the son of Imam Abu al-Qasim: "In his time
our [Ash`ari and Shafi`i] imams and the verifying scholars among our
companions saw in him such perfection and high merit that they used to
say: If it were permissible to hold that Allah sent another prophet in
our time, it would not have been other than he."
Among al-Juwayni's works:
* al-Furuq
* al-Jam` wa al-Farq
* Mawqif al-Imam wa al-Ma'mum
* al-Muhit, in which the imam intended
to compile a fiqh manual in disregard of the Shafi`i school and
based only on hadith proof-texts. Al-Bayhaqi citicized the weakness of
the hadiths he saw him adduce and pointed out to him that al-Shafi`i
was meticulous enough in inferring his jurisprudence from hadith
proof-texts. The imam accepted al-Bayhaqi's advice and abandoned its
completion.1
* al-Mu`tasar fi Mukhtasar al-Mukhtasar,
and abridgment of al-Muzani's abridgment in Shafi`i fiqh
* al-Silsila in fiqh
* al-Tabsira fi al-Waswasa on acts of
worship
* al-Tadhkira
* al-Tafsir al-Kabir, reported by `Abd
al-Ghafir ibn Isma`il al-Farisi in his history of Naysabur to contain,
for each verse, a different explanation according to ten different
disciplines or perspectives.
* al-Ta`liqa
An epistle on the subject of Allah's
establishment on the Throne was falsely attributed to Imam al-Juwayni
by Munir Agha among the publications of his "Salafi Press" in the
Thirties under the title Risala fi ithbat al-istiwa' wa al-fawqiyya
("Epistle on the Assertion of Establishment and Aboveness"). This
spurious attribution was endorsed without verification - for obvious
reasons - by modern-day "Salafis" who adduced it to forward the claim
that al-Juwayni "repented from Ash`ari kalam" towards the end
of his life and turned to embrace anthropomorphist concepts. The Risala
in question is not mentioned in any of the bibliographical and
biographical sources nor does al-Dhahabi cite it in his encyclopedia of
anthropomorphist views entitled al-`Uluw. More conclusively, it
is written in modern argumentative style and reflects typically
contemporary anthropomorphist stances. Furthermore, it is not
authentically reported from al-Juwayni, his son, al-Fakhr al-Razi, al-Ghazali, nor any of the major early
and late Ash`aris that they ever changed their foundational doctrinal
positions on the appropriateness of the figurative interpretation (ta'wil)
of Allah's Attributes in the light of the rules of the Arabic language
and the directive given by the verse “There is nothing whatsoever
like unto Him” (42:11).2
Abu al-Qasim ibn Mansur ibn Ramis said: "You
could not see in al-Juwayni any frivolity or thoughtlessness due to the
complete conformity of his outward demeanor with his inward state and
his abstinence from leadership which ran after him while he ran away
from it." Among the marks of his scrupulous fear of Allah was his care
never to lean back against the wall of his house that was joint
property between him and his neighbor, nor drive a nail into it. He
would adduce the purification-tax (zakat) twice a year whenever
he feared having neglected the intention or conveyed it to the
undeserving.
Imam al-Haramayn narrates: "My father used to
recite in the supplication of the dawn prayer: Allahumma la ta`uqna
`an al-`ilmi bi `a'iqin wa la tamna`na `anhu bi mani` - O Allah! Do
not hinder us in any way from [obtaining] knowledge, and do not prevent
us from it by any means." Of note here is Imam al-Haramayn's position
that the integral (rukn) of stillness in the post-ruku`
erect posture (al-tuma'nina fi al-i`tidal) ought to be short and
not as long as the integrals of reciting, bowing, prostrating, and
sitting. Ibn al-Subki comments:
There is a well-known divergence of opinion
among the Shafi`is concerning the invalidity of a prayer in which the
post-bowing erect posture is lengthened inordinately, but Imam
al-Haramayn went too far when he questioned stillness altogether, while
others expressed hesitancy concerning it. The correct and known
position is that it is obligatory.
Al-Juwayni related that he once dreamt of seeing
the Prophet Yusuf -upon him peace-, whereupon he fell to his knees in
order to kiss his feet, but Yusuf -upon him peace- prevented him as a
mark of honor for the imam, so the latter kissed Yusuf's heels.
Al-Juwayni said: "I interpreted it to mean that there would be blessing
and honor in what I would leave behind." Ibn al-Subki commented: "What
greater blessing and honor than his son!"
Among the imam's positions is the verdict that
one who deliberately lies about the Prophet -- Allah bless and greet
him -- has committed apostasy and is passible of death. Imam
al-Haramayn relates that his father used to reiterate this fatwa in
every class of his.
Abu Salih al-Mu'adhdhin said: "I gave Abu
Muhammad his funeral bath. When we were wrapping him in the shroud I
saw his right arm to the arm-pit luminous like the moon. I was
bewildered, then I said to myself: these are the blessings of his legal
responses."3
NOTES
1Al-Bayhaqi's epistle to al-Juwayni is
reproduced in full in TSK (5:77-90) and it contains valuable excerpts
from al-Juwayni's al-Muhit.
2The only person who takes Agha's attribution of
this work seriously to our knowledge is Nasir al-Albani in his edition
of Mukhtasar al-`Uluw (p. 277).
3TKM (p. 253-254); SAN 13:403-404 #4027); TSK
(5:72-93 #439).