Abstract:

This study aims to go through Muʿtazilite understandings of a man briefly and expounds on Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Hamadani’s (d. 1025) strong rejection of any non-physicalist view of man and his soul. Amongst the Mu'tazilite school prevailed three distinct views on man, hence of the soul; the non-physicalist tradition represented by Ibrāhīm b. Sayyār an-Naẓẓām (d. 836) who claimed that man is the dwelling soul in the human corpse. The dualist view as advocated by Muʿammar b. ʿAbbād (d. 830) who understood man as a combination of the material body and immaterial soul. The third view is the so-called materialist stance on the human being. Qadi ʿAbd al-Jabbār as one of the advocates of this view argues that man does not possess any immaterial or immortal soul. This paper proposes that such a peculiar view of man was the natural outcome of ʿAbd al-Jabbār’s cosmological setting and his sensitivity towards legal matters (talkif). ʿAbd al-Jabbār’s image of man does not need other; a soul, to make him will or capable of certain actions, for man is this corporeal body which could be seen in its actuality, and experienced in its totality. Therefore, he defines man (šaẖs) as a living being (ḥayy), having volition (murid), capable of acting voluntarily (qādir) and consequently entitles him with the responsibility for moral and religious obligations (al-mukallaf). It could be widely observed that Qadi, though admits the presence of soul in the body for its being alive, does not consider it to be living in itself or eternal. The soul, however, is the contingent breath, by which lightweight bodies (air) are inhaled and exhaled. It is an integral part of a living human being such as his flesh, blood or body structures.

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