Ashʿarism and Māturīdism — Sunni Kalām

In the 10th century al-Ashʿarī and al-Māturīdī forged the two schools that became mainstream Sunni theology, defending traditional belief with disciplined reason.

At a glance

Reacting against Muʿtazilī rationalism — al-Ashʿarī had himself been a Muʿtazilī before breaking with the school — the two founders set out to defend the beliefs of the wider community using the very tools of argument the rationalists had wielded, but with reason now serving revelation rather than overruling it. Their formulations became, over time, the theology of most of the Sunni world.

On the vexed question of human acts, al-Ashʿarī taught that God creates every deed, which the person then “acquires” (kasb) and is answerable for; al-Māturīdī allowed the person a somewhat more real disposing power. On God's attributes they steered between the Muʿtazilī denial and a crude literalism, affirming the attributes as real “without asking how.” The differences between the two schools were real but modest, and Ashʿarism, carried by influential later figures, became the more widespread.

Together the two schools gave Sunnism a via media — rational without being rationalist, traditional without being anti-intellectual — that defined orthodox theology for centuries.

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Curated reference on Islamic belief and thought. On matters where traditions differ, positions are attributed rather than adjudicated; verify points of doctrine with qualified scholars.