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Ibn Karram

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Muhammad ibn Karram
Personal
Born190 H/ 806 CE
Died255 H/ 868 CE
ReligionIslam
EraEarly Islamic
(Abbasid Era)
DenominationKarramiyya[1][Note 1]
JurisprudenceHanafi
Main interest(s)Aqeedah,Hadith
Notable idea(s)Iman-IqrarEquivalence
Notable work(s)Kitab 'Azab al-Qabr,Kitab al-Tawhid
OccupationScholar of Islam
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Karramal-Sijistani(Arabic:أبو عبد الله محمد بن كَرَّام السجستاني) was anascetic,hellfire preacher,hadith narrator,and a literalisttheologianwho founded theKarramiyyasect. His views were consideredheretical,schismatic, and abominable by the majority ofSunnischolars. He was accused of holding the doctrine ofanthropomorphism,and that his chief theological doctrine was that God is a substance (jawhar) and that he had a body (jism); for which reason his followers were commonly called the "Mujassima" (corporealists) and "Mushabbiha" (anthropomorphists).[8][9][10][11][12][Note 2]

Some sources reported that he was ofArabdescent,[15]and his lineage belongs to the BaniNizar,or Bani Turab (the people or sons of Turab),[16]and according to some, to the Arab tribe of theBanu Nadhir.[17]It has been said thatIbn Taymiyya(d. 728/1328) took inspiration from him.[18]

Name[edit]

His name was Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Karram ibn 'Arraf (or 'Iraq) ibn Khuraya (or Khizana or Hizaba) ibn al-Bara'al-Sijistanial-Nisapuri.[19][20]

Biography[edit]

He was born inZaranjinSijistan,in around 190/806.[21]He traveled toKhurasanand studied with Ahmad b. Harb, Ibrahim b. Yusuf, 'Ali b. Hujr inMarw,and 'Abd Allah b. Malik inHerat.Then he moved toMeccaand stayed there five years. Then he returned back to his home country Sijistan, and went toNisapurand studied withAhmed Bin Harb[22]before the local governorTahir b. 'Abd Allah(230–48/844–62) expelled him, because his teachings caused unrest and strife within society. Then he went to theLevantand returned toNisapurto preach to the masses.[23]His preaching attracted large crowds. In his speeches, he was opposed and attacked both Sunni andShi'atheology. For this reason, the Tahirid governorMuhammad b. Tahir b. 'Abd Allahjailed him for eight years. After his release from the jail in 251/865, he traveled toJerusalem.[24][25]

Ibn Kathirinal-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya(The Beginning and the End) andMuhammad ibn Ahmad al-Maqdisi(c. 945–991) inAhsan al-Taqasim fi Ma'rifat al-Aqalim(The Best Divisions for Knowledge of the Regions), both of them confirmed that Ibn Karram preached his controversial views while sitting near the "column of the cradle ofJesus,where many people used to meet him. "[25][26]Due to his views aboutiman(belief), his books were burned and he was expelled from Jerusalem by the governor toRamla.[15]

Books[edit]

There are several books attributed to Ibn Karram, such asKitab al-Tawhid(Book of the Unification), andKitab 'Azab al-Qabr(Book of the Torment of the Grave), but none of them remain today. However, his beliefs are mentioned in a number oftabaqatworks (biographical dictionaries) andheresiographicalworks, includingMaqalat al-Islamiyyin(The Ideas of the Muslims) byAbu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari(d. 324/936),Al-Farq bayn al-Firaq(The Difference between the Sects) by'Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadi(d. 429/1037),al-Tabsir fi al-Dinby Abu al-Muzaffar al-Isfarayini (d. 471/1078), Kitabal-Milal wa al-Nihal(The Book of Religions and Creeds) byAbu al-Fath al-Shahristani(d. 548/1153), andI'tiqadat Firaq al-Muslimin wa al-MushrikinbyFakhr al-Din al-Razi(d. 606/1210).[15]

Theological views[edit]

According to heresiographical works, Ibn Karram is considered one of theMurji'awho held thatiman(faith or belief) to be only acknowledgment with the tongue, without the need for recognition by the heart, and confirmation by acts.[15]

He used to say: "Allah is a body unlike bodies" and "Allah is firmly seated on the throne and He is in person on the upper side of it." He and his adherents accepted the materialistic pictures of God found in theQur'anand tried to understand them in human terms. The followers of Ibn Karram were unsure "whether Allah is as big as his throne, whether it is equal to his breadth."[27]'Abd al-Qahir al-Baghdadigave an exhaustive description of their doctrines inal-Farq bayn al-Firaq.[28][29]

In his book, which is entitled 'Azab al-Qabr (The Punishment of the Grave), he described God as He is high above, localized on the Throne, and that God touches His Throne and that the Throne is a place for Him, and that He is sitting on it. He wrote also that God is a Unit of essence and a Unit of substance, had a body with flesh, blood, and limbs, and had direction and so could move from one point to another. He affirmed the beatific vision (seeing God in the hereafter) without securing the doctrine against its potential spatial implications.[30][Note 3]

Scholarly views on him[edit]

Although he claimed to be a follower ofAbu Hanifa,his theological views were criticized by theHanafis,such asAbu Bakr al-Samarqandi(d. 268/881–2),al-Hakim al-Samarqandi(d. 342/953),Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi(d. 482/1089),Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi(d. 508/1114), andal-Saffar al-Bukhari(d. 534/1139).[31]

He was accused of being a fabricator ofHadithby several scholars, includingIbn Hibban(d. 354/ 965),al-Dhahabi(d. 748/1348),Ibn Kathir(d. 774/1373), andIbn Hajar al-'Asqalani(d. 852/1449), all of them confirmed that the reporting of Ibn Karram is unreliable, because he is afabricator.[32][10][25][11]

Salah al-Din al-Safadi(d. 764/1363) in his work, entitled:Al-Wafi bi al-Wafayat(Arabic:الوافي بالوفيات,lit. 'The Complement to the Deaths'), described him as a deviant and misguided anthropomorphist, and he said that Ibn Karram was praised byIbn Khuzayma(d. 311/923) and met him more than once.[6]

Ibn Taymiyya(d. 728/1328) in his bookSharh al-'Aqida al-Asfahaniyya(Arabic:شرح العقيدة الأصفهانية) defended him, as he stated in his own words:[2][3]

Sharh al-'Aqida al-Isfahaniyya

Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Karram was also raised up inSijistanand its aspects, supporting the doctrine ofAhl al-Sunna wa al-Jama'a(the Sunnis), the affirmers of God's attributes, theQadr(predestination, fate, or the divine destiny) and love of theSahaba(the Companions of the Prophet Muhammad) and so on, and countering/responding to theJahmiyya,theMu'tazila,theRafida(refusers, rejectionists or defectors; often used as a derogatory term for Shi'ites) and others, and agreed with them on the basis of their articles in which they said what they said, and disagreed with them in their requirements, asIbn Kullabandal-Ash'aridisagreed with them, but those are affiliated with theSunnaandHadith,while Ibn Karram is affiliated with the doctrine of theAhl al-Ra'y(people of reasoned opinion, often referring to the Hanafis).

وقام أيضاً أبو عبد الله محمد بن كَرَّام بسجستان ونواحيها ينصر مذهب أهل السنة والجماعة، والمثبتة للصفات والقدر وحب الصحابة وغير ذلك، ويرد على الجهمية والمعتزلة والرافضة وغيرهم، ويوافقهم على أصول مقالاتهم التي بها قالوا ما قالوا، ويخالفهم في لوازمها، كما خالفهم ابن كلاب والأشعري، لكن هؤلاء منتسبون إلى السنة والحديث، وابن كرام منتسب إلى مذهب أهل الرأي

Ibn Taymiyya,"Sharh al-'Aqida al-Isfahaniyya".p. 378.

Death[edit]

He died in Bayt al-Maqdis (Jerusalem) inSafarin the year 255 AH/869 CE, and was buried at Bab Ariha (Gate ofJericho).[20]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^However,Ibn Taymiyyahdid not consider him to have been an anthropomorphist.[2][3]
  2. ^The Mujassima (corporealists), as indicated by their name, are those who maintain that God has a body,[13]whose rationalized views on God's corporeality resembled theStoicideas of the early Christian theologians.[14]Accordingly, they wereliteralists:hence the derogatory terms Mushabbiha (anthropomorphists) and Hashwiyya (roughly, "know-nothings" ) applied to them by theAsh'arisandMaturidis.
  3. ^TheQur'anstates that God will be seen in Paradise in person, which mentioned inSurat al-Qiyama(75:22-23): "Some faces on that Day will be radiant (with contentment), looking towards their Lord". The seeing God in the afterlife became a pillar of the Ash'ari and the Maturidi schools. But the Nature, Perfection, and Attributes of God being all infinite, and exalted above comprehension or encompassing, and the Understanding of Man not only finite, but also of small Extent. According to the Ash'aris and the Maturidis, God will be seen in the Hereafter by the believers, but with the rule ofBila Kayf( "without considering how and without comparison" ).

References[edit]

  1. ^Much Hasan Darojat, Mohd Fauzi Hamat, and Wan Adli Wan Ramli. "Al-Baqillani's Critique to Anthropomorphist's Concept of The Attributes of God." (2016). p. 2
  2. ^abc'Alawi ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Saqqaf[in Arabic];et al.كتاب موسوعة الفرق المنتسبة للإسلام(in Arabic). dorar.net. Archived fromthe originalon 2 Feb 2024.وقام أيضاً أبو عبد الله محمد بن كرام بسجستان ونواحيها ينصر مذهب أهل السنة والجماعة، والمثبتة للصفات والقدر وحب الصحابة وغير ذلك، ويرد على الجهمية والمعتزلة والرافضة وغيرهم، ويوافقهم على أصول مقالاتهم التي بها قالوا ما قالوا، ويخالفهم في لوازمها، كما خالفهم ابن كلاب والأشعري، لكن هؤلاء منتسبون إلى السنة والحديث، وابن كرام منتسب إلى مذهب أهل الرأي
  3. ^abc'Alawi ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Saqqaf[in Arabic];et al.كتاب موسوعة الفرق المنتسبة للإسلام - الدرر السنية.dorar.net(in Arabic).
  4. ^Much Hasan Darojat, Mohd Fauzi Hamat, and Wan Adli Wan Ramli. "Al-Baqillani's Critique to Anthropomorphist's Concept of The Attributes of God. "(2016). pp. 6-7" Another Anthropomorphist, Ibn al-Karram, also maintained his [referring to Muqatil bin Sulayman who was quoted above] theological belief relying on Christianity in terms of the concept of God "
  5. ^'Abd al-Mun'im al-Hanafi."موسوعة الفرق والجماعات والمذاهب والأحزاب والحركات الإسلامية"(in Arabic).
  6. ^abSalah al-Din al-Safadi(January 2010)."Al-Wafi bi al-Wafayat (The Complete Work of Necrologies)"(in Arabic).
  7. ^Zysow, Aron (15 October 2011)."KARRĀMIYA".Iranica.Vol. 15. Encyclopوdia Iranica Foundation. pp. 590–601.Retrieved1 October2020.Among later Muslim thinkers Ebn Taymiya (d. 728/1328) stands out as a sympathetic, if critical, student of Karrāmi theology, and he took it upon himself to write an extensive commentary on Faḵr-al-Din Rāzi's anti-Karrāmi work Asās al-taqdis, in which he defended the traditionist and Karrāmi positions on the key points of dispute
  8. ^Moshe Gil(1997).A History of Palestine, 634-1099.Translated by Ethel Broido.Cambridge University Press.p. 301.ISBN9780521599849.
  9. ^Nile Green (2012).Sufism: A Global History.John Wiley & Sons.p. 45.ISBN9781405157612.
  10. ^abAl-Dhahabi."Siyar A'lam al-Nubala' (The Biographies of the Most Noble)"(in Arabic). Islamweb.net.
  11. ^abIbn Hajar al-'Asqalani."Lisan al-Mizan (Tongue of the Balance)"(in Arabic). al-eman.com.
  12. ^"من هم" الكرامية "ولماذا وصفهم أهل السنة والجماعة بأصحاب البدعة؟"(in Arabic).Youm7.
  13. ^William C. Chittick(1992).Faith and Practice of Islam: Three Thirteenth-Century Sufi Texts.State University of New York Press(SUNY Press). p. 194.ISBN9780791498941.
  14. ^Yohanan Friedmann;Christoph Markschies,eds. (2018).Rationalization in Religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.Walter de Gruyter.p. 235.ISBN9783110446395.
  15. ^abcdOliver Leaman,ed. (2015).The Biographical Encyclopedia of Islamic Philosophy.Bloomsbury Publishing.p. 197.ISBN9781472569455.
  16. ^"MUHAMMED b. KERRÂM".islamansiklopedisi.org.tr(in Turkish).İslâm Ansiklopedisi.
  17. ^"Abdullah ibn Karram".eslam.de(in German). Enzyklopädie des Islam.
  18. ^Zysow, Aron (1988). "Two Unrecognized Karrāmī Texts".Journal of the American Oriental Society.108(4): 577–587.doi:10.2307/603146.ISSN0003-0279.JSTOR603146.
  19. ^Gerlof van Vloten(1899).Les Hachwia et Nabita(in French).Imprimerie nationale.p. 16.
  20. ^abIbn 'Asakir(January 2012)."Tarikh Madinat Dimashq (History of the City of Damascus)"(in Arabic).
  21. ^"Ibn Karram".Oxford Reference.
  22. ^Malamud, Margaret (1994)."The Politics of Heresy in Medieval Khurasan: The Karramiyya in Nishapur".Iranian Studies.27(1–4): 37–51.doi:10.1080/00210869408701819.ISSN0021-0862.
  23. ^Al-Zirikli."Al-A'lam (The Notable Personalities)"(in Arabic). al-maktaba.org.
  24. ^"Early Sufism in Iran and Central Asia".independentphilosophy.net.
  25. ^abcIbn Kathir."Al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya (The Beginning and the End)"(in Arabic). Islamweb.net.
  26. ^"The Cradle of Jesus and the Oratory of Mary in Jerusalem's al-Haram al-Sharif"(PDF).Institute for Palestine Studies.p. 112.
  27. ^Ovey N. Mohammed (1984).Averroesʼ Doctrine of Immortality: A Matter of Controversy.Wilfrid Laurier University Press.p. 62.ISBN9780889201781.
  28. ^Gibril Fouad Haddad(2015).The Biographies of the Elite Lives of the Scholars, Imams & Hadith Masters.Zulfiqar Ayub. p. 216.
  29. ^"Al-Baghdadi's Al-Farq bayn al-Firaq"(in Arabic). arrabita.ma.
  30. ^"An Introduction to Kalam: (Islamic Theology)"(in Arabic).Egypt's Dar al-Ifta.
  31. ^Ulrich Rudolph (2014).Al-Maturidi and the Development of Sunni Theology in Samarqand.Translated by Rodrigo Adem.BRILL.p. 77.ISBN9789004261846.
  32. ^Abd al-Hadi al-Fadli(2011).Introduction to Hadith.ICAS Press. p. 172.ISBN9781904063476.

Further reading[edit]

  • Clifford Edmund Bosworth,"The Rise of the Karamiyyah in Khurasan", Muslim World, 51 (1960), pp. 5-14.
  • Margaret Malamud,"The Politics of Heresy in Medieval Khurasan: The Karramiyya in Nishapur",Iranian Studies,Vol. 27, No. 1-4, Religion and Society in Islamic Iran during the Pre-Modern Era (1994), pp. 37-51.
  • Suhair Muhammad Mukhtar, "al-Tajsim 'inda al-Muslimin, madhhab al-Karamiyyah" (Arabic:التجسيم عند المسلمين: مذهب الكرامية),Alexandria,(1971).

External links[edit]

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