Ibn Kullab

Ibn Kullab (d. ca. 241/855) was an early Sunni theologian (mutakallim) However it was also used by scholars such as al-Jahiz as a term for a group he and other Mu'tazilites grew increasingly worried at for they were seen as more intellectually able than them and had advanced in Kalam. Al-Jahiz confesses that they have been building up a type of solidarity against the Mu'tazila and have become aggressive against them, claiming to have on their side, "the masses, the recluses, the jurists, the hadith people and the ascetics". Wadad al-Qadi notes that all of those who wrote on them, aside from one, were Mu'tazilites or Mu'tazilite sympathisers and that he finds it curious that none of the Muslim heresiographers mention them as a sect, aside from Ibn al-Nadim, who Wadad would hesitate to call a heresiographer. Wadad concludes, "Indeed, under different names, they are still with us today." |group=Note His movement, also called Kullabiyya, merged and developed into Ash'arism, which, along with Maturidism and Atharism (practically: Hanbalism), forms the theological basis of Sunni Islam.

Ibn Kullab headed a group made up of mainly direct and second generation students of Al-Shafi that included Al-Karibisi, Al-Qalanisi, Al-Muhasibi, Al-Bukhari, Abu Thawr and Dawud-al Zahiri. They were known for their extreme criticism of Jahmis, Mu'tazilis, and Anthropomorphists by using rationalistic methods (Kalam) to defend orthodox creedal points of Sunni Islam. They contradicted the Mu'tazili doctrine of Khalq al-Qur'an (Createdness of the Qur'an) by introducing a distinction between the words of God (Kalam Allah) and its pronunciation.

He was praised by several famous scholars, including Ibn 'Asakir, Taj al-Din al-Subki, Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani, Ibn Khaldun, Ibn Abi Zayd al-Qayrawani, Ibn Qadi Shuhba, Jamal al-Din al-Isnawi, Kamal al-Din al-Bayadi in his Isharat al-Maram, Abu Mansur al-Baghdadi in his work Kitab Usul al-Din, al-Shahrastani in al-Milal wa al-Nihal, and al-Kawthari.

Name Abu Muhammad 'Abdallah ibn Sa'id ibn Kullab al-Qattan al-Basri al-Tamimi. It has been reported also that al-Junayd al-Baghdadi was one of his students.

Books He has a number of works that are documented such as: Kitab al-Radd 'ala al-Hashwiyya (meaning the 'crammers,' a term also used for the deviant misguided Anthropomorphists). Kitab al-Radd 'ala al-Mu'tazila. Kitab al-Sifat (Book of Divine Attributes). Kitab in al-Tawhid (Book of Islamic Monotheism). Kitab Khalq al-Af'al (Book of the Creation of Human Acts).

These books are lost, however remnants of them can be found in other works such as Maqalat al-Islamiyyin of Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari. He was also quoted by the early Ash'ari scholars such as Ibn Furak (d. 406H).

Death He died in 240 AH, or according to some in 241 AH.