Safi al-Din al-Hindi
Safi al-Din al-Hindi al-Urmawi (Arabic: صفي الدين الهندي الأرموي), was a prominent Indian Shafi'i-Ash'ari scholar and a leading rationalist theologian.
Safi al-Din al-Hindi صفي الدين الهِنْدي | |
|---|---|
| Title | Imam al-Mutakallimin |
| Personal | |
| Born | 1246 |
| Died | 1315 |
| Religion | Islam |
| Denomination | Sunni |
| Jurisprudence | Shafi'i |
| Creed | Ash'ari |
| Main interest(s) | Fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), Usul al-Fiqh (principles of jurisprudence), Usul al-Din, Aqidah, Kalam (Islamic theology), Logic |
| Muslim leader | |
Influenced by
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Influenced
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Al-Hindi was brought in to debate at Ibn Taymiyya during the second hearing in Damascus in 1306, and Taj al-Din al-Subki in his Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra reports him to have said: "Oh Ibn Taymiyya, I see that you are only like a sparrow. Whenever I want to grab it, it escapes from one place to another".[1]
He was praised by Taj al-Din al-Subki, Al-Safadi, Shihab al-Din al-'Umari, Shams al-Din ibn al-Ghazzi, and 'Abd al-Hayy al-Hasani.
Teachers
He studied under Siraj al-Din al-Urmawi, and was told to have indirectly begun his studies with Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (who he met through his maternal grandfather).[2]
Students
He was the teacher of the mutakallim (theologian) Sadr al-Din ibn al-Wakil (d. 1317), and Kamal al-Din ibn al-Zamalkani (d. 1327).
Biography
He grew up in Delhi, and traveled to Yemen, then went to Mecca to perform the Hajj, then visited Egypt, and then moved to Turkey, where he stayed[3]
for eleven years, including five in Konya, five in Sivas, and a year in Kays. A, athen nd finally arrived in Damascus in the second half of the 13th century, and stayed there until his death in 1315 or 1316.[4]
He and his students Ibn al-Wakil, and Ibn al-Zamalkani had been directly involved in Ibn Taymiyyah's famous 1306 Damascene trials, which were addressed to restrain Ibn Taymiyyah's relentless anti-Ash'ari polemics.[5]
Books
Among his well-known writings are:
- Al-Fa'iq fi Usul al-Fiqh (Arabic: الفائق في أصول الفقه)
- Nihayat al-Wusul fi Dirayat al-Usul (Arabic: نهاية الوصول في دراية الأصول)
- Al-Resalah al-Tis'iniyya fi al-Usul al-Diniyya (Arabic: الرسالة التسعينية في الأصول الدينية)
Al-Hindi's Tis'iniyya is a straightforward manual of Ash'ari kalam treating the traditional theological topics of God, prophecy, eschatology, and related matters.
At the beginning of the book, al-Hindi explains that the occasion for writing was a disturbance provoked by Hanbalis:
This treatise comprises ninety issues pertaining to the foundations of religion (Usul al-Din). I wrote it when I saw students from Syria devoting themselves to learning this discipline after the famous disturbance (fitna) that took place between the orthodox (Ahl al-Sunna wa al-Jama'a) and some Hanbalis.
This is not a direct refutation of Ibn Taymiyya, but it was most likely written in response to the challenge that he posed.[6]
See also
References
- Ayman Shihadeh, Jan Thiele (2020). Philosophical Theology in Islam: Later Ash'arism East and West. Brill Publishers. pp. 211–216. ISBN 9789004426610.
- "Safi al-Din | Biography, History, Religion, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2020-06-23.
- Philosophical Theology in Islam: Later Ashʿarism East and West. BRILL. 2020-05-06. ISBN 978-90-04-42661-0.
- "Al-'Alam by al-Zirikli". shamela.ws.
- Stephan Conermann (2013). Ubi sumus? Quo vademus?: Mamluk Studies - State of the Art. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. p. 63. ISBN 9783847101000.
- Ayman Shihadeh, Jan Thiele (2020). Philosophical Theology in Islam: Later Ash'arism East and West. Brill Publishers. pp. 211–216. ISBN 9789004426610.
