Work

The Elucidation of the Foundations of Religion

Al-Ibana

Al-Ash'ari·c. 930 CE·Arabic

About this text

Al-Ash'ari's statement of the middle path he founded between rationalist theology and blind literalism. God's power is absolute and his will unbound by human logic; the world holds together only because God sustains it at every instant. The work became a charter of Sunni orthodoxy.

We confess that God is seated upon his Throne, as he has said; that he has two hands, as he has said — without asking how; that he has a face, as he has said. We do not go beyond the Quran and the tradition, and of what the words affirm we say: it is so — without asking how, and without likening him to his creatures.

The Quran is the speech of God, and it is uncreated; whoever says it is created has made the speech of God a thing among created things.

The faithful shall see their Lord in the world to come with the sight of the eye, as the moon is seen on the night of its fullness — following the report of the Messenger, neither adding to it nor taking anything away.

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