Abstract:

Mustafa Sabri Efendi, one of the last period politicians and scientists of Ottoman joined many scholarly debates not only in his country but also in abroad and followed a conservative and traditionalist approach in these debates. One of the persons that he debated on scholarly issues was Mahmûd Şeltût, who took office in various levels and rose to prominence with his reformist thoughts. Mustafa Sabri objected the fatwa of Şeltût who used the thesis that there is no open expression in Quran and in Hadith that support the ascension and descent of Prophet İsa (Pbuh) in such as extend to form the basis of faith and the person who rejected this belief would not be in trouble with in terms of faith. He criticized Şeltût and he gave answers to his assertions and the evidences he used. Mustafa Sabri propounded some mental evidences in his responses together with the evidences forwarded by the predecessor scholars aimed at the faith of ascension and descent of Prophet İsa and developed reviews in this issue in accordance with the traditional views. The answers of Şeltût who responded the critics and answers of Mustafa Sabri to himself in parallel with those reviews through some articles, was taken as a subject of new critics by Mustafa Sabri. In this article, the fatwa of Şeltût and the critics of Mustafa Sabri aimed at that fatwa shall be reviewed.

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