Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad

'Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Jabbar al-HamaJani al-Asadabadi, Abu 'l-Hasan (935 - 1025) was a Mu'tazilite theologian, a follower of the Shafi'i school. He lived in Baghdad, until he was invited to Rey, in 367 AH/978 CE, by Ibn 'Abbad, a staunch supporter of the Mu'tazila. He was appointed chief Qadi of the province. On the death of Ibn 'Abbad, he was deposed and arrested by the ruler, Fakhr al-Dawla, because of a slighting remark made by him about his deceased benefactor. He died later in 415 AH/1025 CE.

His comprehensive "summa" of speculative theology, the Mughni, presented Mu`tazili thought under the two headings of God's oneness (tawhid) and his justice (adl). He argued that the Ash'arite separation between the eternal speech of God and the created words of the Qur'an made God's will unknowable.

References

• Abu Sa'id al-Bayhaqi, Sharh 'Uyun al-Masa'il, MS Leiden, Landberg t15, fol. 1t3v--1t5v, whence Ibn al-Murtada, (al-Mu'tazila, Arnold), 66 ff.
• al-khatib al-Baghdadi,qTa'rikh Baghdad, xi, 113 ff.
• al-Subki, tabaqat, iii, 114, t19-t0
• Ibn al-Athir, viii, 510-1, ix, 77-8, t35, x, 95
• I. Goldziher, Isl., 191t, t14
• M. Horten, Die philosophischen Systeme, 457-6t
• A. S. Tritton, Muslim Theology, 191-3. -- 'Abd al-Jabbar's tabaqat al-Mu'tazila was the main source of Abu Sa'id al-Bayhaqi's important historical account of the Mu'tazila in the introduction of his Sharh 'Uyun al-Masa'il. Al-Bayhaqi's account was taken over, in a slightly abbreviated form, by Ibn al-Murtada (ed. Th. W. Arnold).