Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn ʿUmar b. al-Ḥusayn al-Makkī, also known as Ḍiyāʾ al-Dīn al-Makkī () was a well-known

Ash'ari Ash'arism (; ) is a school of theology in Sunni Islam named after Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, a Shāfiʿī jurist, reformer (''mujaddid''), and scholastic theologian, in the 9th–10th century. It established an orthodox guideline, based on ...

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

and

Shafi'i The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionis ...

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a Lawyer, legal prac ...

. His primary distinction is that he was the father and the first teacher of

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī () or Fakhruddin Razi () (1149 or 1150 – 1209), often known by the sobriquet Sultan of the Theologians, was an influential Iranian and Muslim polymath, scientist and one of the pioneers of inductive logic. He wrote var ...

, one of the most significant theologians and philosophers in Islamic history.

Name

His name Makki is rooted from his family background who left

Mecca Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...

and migrated first to

Tabaristan Tabaristan or Tabarestan (; ; from , ), was a mountainous region located on the Caspian coast of northern Iran. It corresponded to the present-day province of Mazandaran, which became the predominant name of the area from the 11th-century onward ...

and from there they settled the nearby city of Rey.

Life

About his life, not much is known. He studied Ash'rai theology and Quranic interpretation with Abu al-Qasim al-Ansari, the leading Ash'arite figure in the Muslim East, following the death of his master

al-Juwayni Dhia' ul-Dīn 'Abd al-Malik ibn Yūsuf al-Juwaynī al-Shafi'ī (, 17 February 102820 August 1085; 419–478 AH) was a Persian Sunni scholar famous for being the foremost leading jurisconsult, legal theoretician and Islamic theologian of his ...

. Naturally, this study had to have happened in

Nishapur Nishapur or Neyshabur (, also ) is a city in the Central District (Nishapur County), Central District of Nishapur County, Razavi Khorasan province, Razavi Khorasan province, Iran, serving as capital of both the county and the district. Ni ...

, most likely at the Nizamiyya school, where al-Ansari was employed as a librarian. Al-Makki studied Shafi'i law under the esteemed Shafi'i scholar

al-Baghawi Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥusayn ibn Masʻūd ibn Muḥammad al-Farrā' al-Baghawī ( Persian/Arabic:ابو محمد حسین بن مسعود بغوی), also known as al-Baghawī () was a Persian Sunni Muslim scholar based in Khorasan. He was a pro ...

Merv Merv (, ', ; ), also known as the Merve Oasis, was a major Iranian peoples, Iranian city in Central Asia, on the historical Silk Road, near today's Mary, Turkmenistan. Human settlements on the site of Merv existed from the 3rd millennium& ...

based in

Khorasan KhorasanDabeersiaghi, Commentary on Safarnâma-e Nâsir Khusraw, 6th Ed. Tehran, Zavvâr: 1375 (Solar Hijri Calendar) 235–236 (; , ) is a historical eastern region in the Iranian Plateau in West and Central Asia that encompasses western and no ...

. Al-Makki assumed the role of

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who Open-air preaching, preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach com ...

in Rey's main mosque, possibly carrying on his father's legacy. He presumably died in the year of 559/1163-4 when his son,

was at the age of fourteen or fifteen.

Works

Al-Makki is said to have written a number of theological and juristic writings, some of which Fakhr al-Din occasionally cites. An authentic copy of the second volume on his most significant work, the Ash'ari theology summa, ''Nihayat al-Maram fi Dirayat al-Kalam'' ("The acme of aspirations in the study of kalam"), has just shown up. It is a huge two-volume work. Because it is one of the few surviving summae of traditional Ash'arism and because it provides insight into the theological transition that occurred during Fakhr al-Din's upbringing, this book is historically significant. The extant portion of the ''Nihaya'' closely follows

's and al-Ansari's

kalam ''Ilm al-kalam'' or ''ilm al-lahut'', often shortened to ''kalam'', is the scholastic, speculative, or rational study of Islamic theology ('' aqida''). It can also be defined as the science that studies the fundamental doctrines of Islamic fai ...

works in terms of theological content and structure. Al-Makki's most famous theological perspective holds that God's contingent existence is necessary since His existent is required, but created beings' existence is maintained by an accidental continuing existence that God generates in them. This concept, which is distinct from Ash'arism, might have had an impact on the preliminary stages of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's metaphysics.

References

Bibliography

* * * {{Authority control Asharis Shafi'is Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam 12th-century Muslim theologians 12th-century jurists