Ibn Kullab () (d. ca. 241/855) was an early

Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

(mutakallim) in

Basra Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is hand ...

and

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

in the first half of the 9th century during the time of the

Mihna The Mihna ( ar, محنة خلق القرآن, ''Miḥnat k͟halaq al-Qurʾān'' "ordeal egardingthe createdness of the Qur'an") refers to the period of religious persecution instituted by the 'Abbasid Caliph al-Ma'mun in 833 CE in which reli ...

and belonged, according to

Ibn al-Nadim Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm ( ar, ابو الفرج محمد بن إسحاق النديم), also ibn Abī Ya'qūb Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Warrāq, and commonly known by the ''nasab'' (patronymic) Ibn al-Nadīm ...

, to the traditionalist group of the Nawabit. Often regarded to be the true founder of the

Ash'ari Ashʿarī theology or Ashʿarism (; ar, الأشعرية: ) is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Muslim scholar, Shāfiʿī jurist, reformer, and scholastic theologian Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī in the ...

madhab. His movement, also called Kullabiyya, merged and developed into

Ash'arism Ashʿarī theology or Ashʿarism (; ar, الأشعرية: ) is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Muslim scholar, Shāfiʿī jurist, reformer, and scholastic theologian Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī in th ...

, which, along with

Maturidism Māturīdī theology or Māturīdism ( ar, الماتريدية: ''al-Māturīdiyyah'') is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Persian Muslim scholar, Ḥanafī jurist, reformer (''Mujaddid''), and scholastic ...

and Atharism (practically:

Hanbalism The Hanbali school ( ar, ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلْحَنۢبَلِي, al-maḏhab al-ḥanbalī) is one of the four major traditional Sunni Islam, Sunni schools (''Madhhab, madhahib'') of Fiqh, Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Arab ...

), forms the theological basis of

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...

. He was known for his criticism of

Jahmis Jahmī ( ar, جهمي) was a pejorative term used by early Islamic scholars to refer to the followers of Jahm ibn Safwan (d. 128/746). The four schools of jurisprudence (''fiqh'') reject the Jahmi belief and the fourth Imam, Ahmad ibn Hanbal was ...

Mu'tazilis Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...

, and

Anthropomorphists Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

. He contradicted the

Mu'tazili Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...

doctrine of Khalq al-Qur'an ( Createdness of the Qur'an) by introducing a distinction between the words of God (''Kalam Allah'') and its realisation. He was praised by several famous scholars, including

Ibn 'Asakir Ibn Asakir ( ar-at, ابن عساكر, Ibn ‘Asākir; 1105–c. 1176) was a Syrian Sunni Islamic scholar, who was one of the most renowned experts on Hadith and Islamic history in the medieval era. and a disciple of the Sufi mystic Abu al-Najib S ...

Taj al-Din al-Subki Abū Naṣr Tāj al-Dīn ʻAbd al-Wahhāb ibn ʿAlī ibn ʻAbd al-Kāfī al-Subkī (), or Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī ()or simply Ibn al-Subki was a leading Islamic scholar, a faqīh, a muḥaddith and a historian from the celebrated al-Subkī family ...

Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī or ''Ibn Ḥajar'' ( ar, ابن حجر العسقلاني, full name: ''Shihābud-Dīn Abul-Faḍl Aḥmad ibn Nūrud-Dīn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī al-Kināni'') (18 February 1372 – 2 Febru ...

Ibn Khaldun Ibn Khaldun (; ar, أبو زيد عبد الرحمن بن محمد بن خلدون الحضرمي, ; 27 May 1332 – 17 March 1406, 732-808 AH) was an Arab The Historical Muhammad', Irving M. Zeitlin, (Polity Press, 2007), p. 21; "It is, of ...

Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani Ibn Abī Zayd () (922–996), fully Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Zayd ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Nafzawī ibn Abī Zayd al-Qayrawanī, was a Maliki scholar from Kairouan in Tunisia and was also an active proponent of Ash'ari thought.Herbert J ...

, Ibn Qadi Shuhba, Jamal al-Din al-Isnawi, Kamal al-Din al-Bayadi in his Isharat al-Maram, Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi in his work Kitab Usul al-Din,

al-Shahrastani Tāj al-Dīn Abū al-Fath Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Karīm ash-Shahrastānī ( ar, تاج الدين أبو الفتح محمد بن عبد الكريم الشهرستاني; 1086–1153 CE), also known as Muhammad al-Shahrastānī, was an influenti ...

al-Milal wa al-Nihal ''Kitāb al–Milal wa al-Nihal'' (Arabic: كتاب الملل والنحل, ''The Book of Sects and Creeds''), written by the Islamic scholar Muhammad al-Shahrastani (d. 1153 CE), is a non-polemical study of religious communities and philosophies ...

, and

al-Kawthari Muhammad Zahid b. Hasan al-Kawthari (; 1879–1952) was the adjunct to the last Shaykh al-Islam of the Ottoman Empire, a Hanafi Maturidi scholar. Overview He was born in 1879 in Düzce, now in Turkey (back then in the Ottoman Empire), to fa ...

Name

Abu Muhammad 'Abdallah ibn Sa'id ibn Kullab al-Qattan al-Basri al-Tamimi.

Life

He belonged to the generation of

Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli ( ar, أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل الذهلي, translit=Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Dhuhlī; November 780 – 2 August 855 CE/164–241 AH), was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and ...

and Ishaq ibn Rahwayh. His precise year of birth is unknown, but he lived in the period of the 'Abbasid caliph

al-Ma'mun Abu al-Abbas Abdallah ibn Harun al-Rashid ( ar, أبو العباس عبد الله بن هارون الرشيد, Abū al-ʿAbbās ʿAbd Allāh ibn Hārūn ar-Rashīd; 14 September 786 – 9 August 833), better known by his regnal name Al-Ma'mu ...

Students

It has been said that

Dawud al-Zahiri Dāwūd bin ʿAlī bin Khalaf al-Ẓāhirī ( ar, داود بن علي بن خلف الظاهري) (c. 815–883/4 CE, 199-269/270 AH) was a Persian Muslim scholar, jurist, and theologian during the Islamic Golden Age, specialized in the stud ...

and

al-Harith al-Muhasibi al-Muḥāsibī () was an Arab philosopher, and considered to be the founder of the Baghdad School of Islamic philosophy, and a teacher of the Sufi masters Junayd al-Baghdadi and Sirri Saqti. His full name is Abu Abdullah Harith bin Asad bin ...

learned

kalam ''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doc ...

from him, according to

al-Dhahabi Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Islamic historia ...

in his Siyar A'lam Al-Nubala'. It has been reported also that

al-Junayd al-Baghdadi Junayd of Baghdad (; 830–910) was a Persian people, Persian mystic and one of the most famous of the early wali, Islamic saints. He is a central figure in the spiritual lineage of many tariqa, Sufi orders. Junayd taught in Baghdad throughout ...

was one of his students.

Books

He has a number of works that are documented such as: * Kitab al-Radd 'ala al-Hashwiyya (meaning the 'crammers,' a term also used for the deviant misguided

). * Kitab al-Radd 'ala al-Mu'tazila. * Kitab al-Sifat (Book of Divine Attributes). * Kitab in al-Tawhid (Book of Islamic Monotheism). * Kitab Khalq al-Af'al (Book of the Creation of Human Acts). These books are lost, however remnants of them can be found in other works such as

Maqalat al-Islamiyyin Maqalat al-Islamiyyin wa Ikhtilaf al-Musallin ( ar, مقالات الإسلاميين واختلاف المصلين, lit=The Treatises/Teachings of the Muslims and the Differences of the Prayerful/Worshippers) is one of the main heresiographical ...

Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (; full name: ''Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Isḥāq al-Ashʿarī''; c. 874–936 CE/260–324 AH), often reverently referred to as Imām al-Ashʿarī by Sunnī Muslims, was an Arab Muslim scholar ...

. He was also quoted by the early Ash'ari scholars such as

Ibn Furak Ibn Furak or Ibn Faurak ( ar, ابن فورك; c. 941–c. 1015 CE / 330–406 AH) was a Muslim Imam, a theologian of Ash'arite school, a specialist of Arabic language, grammar and poetry, an orator, a jurist, and a hadith scholar from the ...

(d. 406H).

Death

He died in 240 AH, or according to some in 241 AH.

Notes

References

{{Authority control Shafi'is Salaf Kullabis 9th-century Muslim theologians Sunni imams Sunni Muslim scholars Converts to Islam People from Basra 854 deaths 855 deaths 9th-century Arabs