Khabarī Attributes in Tabarī's Works
Khabarī Attributes in Tabarī's Works

Summary/Abstract: Tabarī, who produced works in almost all branches of religious sciences of Islam, possesses the quality of being a versatile scholar. He makes one feel that he has a say in the field of kalām by communicating also his own opinions after he communicates all body of knowledge and narrations in Islamic theology, especially in booklets of tafsīr and aqāid. While he advocates acceptance of the narrations from the Qur’ān and the Sunnah as they are in doing this, he quite frequently makes emphasis on obedience on Salaf in an appropriate manner to this. Because the fields of divinity of the religious science of kalām in particular encompasses the theme of speculating about Allah, it is a field where extreme caution must be exerted. Issues regarding the essence (dhāt) and attributes of God are the special and inviolable field of Tabarī in a manner of speaking and he is definitely opposed to any other thing than narration being insinuated into this field. Because of the fact that humans also possess the traits attributed to Allah in the Qur’ān and the ḥadith such as hands, feet, eyes, face, fingers, laughing, sitting, coming, going and that besides, there is a danger of resorting to antropomorphism about Allah. Salaf preferred to remain quiet in such issues and vehemently opposed ta'wīl, which means allegorical interpretation. Although Tabarī was also dependent on Salaf in understanding the khabarī attributes and was opposed to ta’wīl, he also tried to elaborate on these attributes within the framework of the rules of syntax-language, a situation also aided by him being a linguist and tafsīr scholar. While he only communicated the notions related to that attribute when it came to some khabarī attributes and made no comment about these and said nothing, he criticized some points if there were any in his thinking after he communicated his notions about some attributes and he clearly specified it if there was any point he felt he needed to advocate. And this is important in demonstrating his way of approaching the khabarī attributes and in us understanding his method. In this study, we will have a piece of knowledge on Tabarī's manner of approaching and comprehending the khabarī attributes, will scrutinize what his standpoint is in this issue and will try to reach a conclusion.

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