Al-Juwaini and his doctrine of the origination of the world

Abstract

At a certain period in the history of Islamic thought, dogmatic theology (Kalam) received the full attention of the most brilliant of Muslim scholars. This happened at a time when purely intellectual sciences had appeared on the Islamic horizon, and opponents of Islam were using these as a weapon against the faith. These factors made Muslim scholars very keen to expound religious truth and support it by rational arguments and proofs, and obliged them to probe into what they called (kalam). In this way they hoped to repair the breach caused by the followers of other religious and intellectual sciences. Their work was zealous and thorough. They composed many lengthy volumes. Most of these were intended to refute md silence their opponents. One of these Mutakallimun was Imam al-Hararmayn, whose fame spread far and wide among his contemporaries and successors, and the perplexed have sought in his works the answers to most of their difficulties, When we examine the works of Imam al-Haramayn, we find him pointing out, with sound logic, the weaknesses of the views held by the various sects which then existed and brilliantly supporting Islamic beliefs against the opinions of those who were trying to belittle the tenets of the sunnis. This is why I chose Iman al-Haramayn as the subject of ay thesis, Iman al-Haramayn who was a guardian of Islamic sciences, zealous in the service of Islam, and encyclopaedic in the range of his interests, I have tried to trace his public and private life and to survey his work in the various religious sciences, I have also tried to study his writings on the origination of the world (Huduth al-'Alam) in which he tries to prove that the world has a creator. Further I have added an edition of a work of his, Luma 'al-Adillah fi Qawa'id 'Aqd'id Ahl as-Sunnah wa-j Jama'ah, which is still in manuscript form.