Introduction to the Maturidis: Part 3 - The Period of Authorship, Codification and Formalization, 500H to 700H
Thursday, December 17 2009 - by Maturidis.Com
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This period took place after 500H over a few hundred years and it was a period in which the Maturidi creed was codified and its usool (foundations) corroborated and put in writing. This was a time when written works were many and in them they gathered the evidences for the Maturidi creed. This period was therefore a more significant period than the one prior to it in establishing their creed.

The most prominent figures in this regard are:

Abu al-Mu'een an-Nasafee (d. 508H), and he is Maymun bin Muhammad bin Mu'tamad an-Nasafee al-Makhoolee. The ascription an-Nasafee is to Nasaf, a large near Samarqand, he is often given the appellations "Sayf ul-Haqq" and "Sayf ud-Deen". Though he is considered one of the greatest of the Shaykhs of the Maturidis, not much is found in the biographical accounts regarding his Shaykhs, or his acquisition of knowledge. He is for the Maturidis what al-Baqillani (d. 403H) and al-Ghazali (d. 505H) are for the Ash'aris. His most famous work is "Tabsirat al-Adillah", and it is one of the most important reference works for the Maturidi creed, after "Kitaab ut-Tawheed" of al-Maturidi himself.

Najm ud-Deen Umar an-Nasafee (d. 537H), and he is Abu Hafs Najm ud-Deen Umar bin Muhammad bin Ahmad al-Hanafi an-Nasafi as-Samarqandi. He had many Shaykhs, the most famous of them, Abu al-Yusr al-Bazduwi, and Abdullaah bin Alee bin Eesaa an-Nasafee, and a great number took knowledge from him, he also has a significant number of works. His famous work on creed is "al-Aqaa'id an-Nasafiyyah" which is another of the important works of the Maturidis in creed and it is essentially an abridgement of "Tabsirat al-Adillah" of Abu al-Mu'een.

Thus, a great deal of authorship in the field of the Maturidi creed and other subjects pertaining to tafseer, and explanations of the books of hadeeth, and general sciences pertaining to the religion were authored in this period, and the Maturidi creed and its adherents now had a recognizable and distinctive school of thought.

The next 600 years or so from 700H to 1300H, marked the spread and proliferation of the Maturidi aqidah and the emergence of specific modern representations, such as the Deobandiyyah, Barelwiyyah and Kawthariyyah.


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