Çukurova University Journal of Faculty of Divinity

Abstract

 Ayn al-Qudât al-Hamadânī (b. 492-1098/d.
525-1131) was born in the period when Sufism emerged as a science. That period is also rich in terms of
Islamic Civilization. Nizamiye Madrasas, which have an important place in
the formation of Sunni thought, were established and spread in that period.

Hamadânī received a good education from an
early age and wrote his first book when he was fourteen. He wrote high level books in the fields of
sufism, kalam, tafsir, fiqh, linguistics, mathematics, astronomy and
philosophy. He
reached a level to give
a fatwa at a young age, he was appointed as judge of Hamadan and lecturer of
madrasa at the same place.

Hamadânī suffered a depression when his
scientific activities could not answer his questions. He overcame this
problem on the occasion of the books of Imam al-Ghazalī. His meeting with Ahmad
Ghazali was a turning point in his life. He chose Ahmad Ghazali as a guide for him,
and with the Sufi education he received from him, he educated the people around
him until the end of his life and wrote books. The fact that he expressed his
ideas freely and spoke words of satahat led to the formation of a community
operating against him. However, thanks to his superior oratory skills and
effective sermons, he has acquired a large number of follower, including
statesmen.

Hamadanī’s sufism way, which takes its source
from Mansur al-Hallaj and comes from Ahmad Ghazali, consists of love, ecstasty
and fanâ. According to him, religion is not a social habit. Sufism is a journey
that ends with seeing and meeting God.

At the age of thirty-three, he was murdered in
Hamadân by the orders of the Seljuk vizier Kıvâmüddin Dergezînî on charges of
getting out of religion. He wrote his book entitled Sakva al-Garîb shortly
before his death to defend himself while he was kept in the dungeon in Baghdad.
This piece, written for the scientists and sufis of the time, is a kind of
execution defenses.

This book that expresses the complaints from
the scholars and sufis of the period he lived 
in a sadness style is important in that it constitutes the final link of
his intellectual process. On the other hand, the work provides important
methodical data on how a writer who left a mark on history should be
understood. In this booklet, there are valuable data on the ilm of sufism,
akâid, kalam, and tafsir. This study aims to identify the tafsir practices and
their sufi interpretations in his work called Sakva al-Garîb, where Hamadânī
defended his execution. In this context, it is possible to say that the method
used by Hamadanī in making sense of religious and literary texts is in the axis
of “knowledge and perception gained from the kalam”.