On Ash’arite ethical voluntarism as the traditional ethics of Islam

Abstract

There is a stereotype that the ethical teaching of Ash’rite theological school in Islam is the traditional Islamic ethics. This thesis is based on the premise that Ash’arism is the official doctrinal school in Islam.

The present article studies another approach to the evaluation of “ethical voluntarism” of Asharites. The author supplies new evidence showing a weakness of the approach, which stresses the Ash’arites ethics as the traditional Islamic ethics. According to the author, the ash’arite ethical teaching rejected by Hanbalites can not be considered as the traditional ethics of Sunni Islam. Ash’arism did not become the orthodox theological view and therefore the ash’arite ethics can not be regarded as the ethics generally accepted by Sunni Muslims.

In recent years the rise of Islamic Fundamentalism associated with Hanbalism this fact embodies Muslim traditionalism demonstrates the falsity of the assumption that ash’arite ethics is the traditional ethics in Islam.