جايگاه و نقش اشعري در تاسيس كلام سياسي اهل سنت

The Position and the Role of Asha’ri pertaining to the Foundation of Sunnites’ Political Theology

جماعتي كه امروز به اهل سنت شناخته مي‌شوند و اكثريت مسلمانان را تشكيل مي‌دهند، تا قرن سوم هنوز از نظر اعتقادي صورت‌بندي روشني نداشتند و با اين نام شناخته نمي‌شدند. ابوالحسن اشعري نخستين انديشمندي بود كه توانست بنيان‌هاي فكري - اعتقادي پراكنده اين گروه را سامان بخشد و صورت‌بندي كلامي منسجمي از آن ارايه دهد. پيش از او البته شافعي توانسته بود روش‌شناسي فقه اهل سنت را پايه‌گذاري كند؛ ولي اعتبار آن وابسته به مباني كلامي‌اي بود كه اشعري تاسيس كرد. اهميت اشعري بيشتر به دليل نقشي بود كه او در تاسيس كلام سياسي داشت و بر اساس آن براي نخستين‌بار به تدوين نظريه خلافت پرداخت. اين نوشتار در پي بررسي اين نقش و توضيح بنيادي است كه اشعري براي ساختار انديشه سياسي اهل سنت پي ريخت و تداوم نهاد خلافت را تضمين كرد.

The community known as Sunnites and being considered as the majority of Muslims was not of clarified identity in terms of belief until the third century and was not well-known by this name as well. Abu al- Hassan Ash’ari was the first scholar who could give order to the scattered intellectual and ideological foundations of this group and provide a coherent theological formation out of it. Following him, Shafi’ee could establish the methodology of Sunnites’ jurisprudence, while its validity was dependent on theological bases which had been initiated by Ash’ari. The significance of Ash’ari was mostly due to his role in relation to the foundation of political theology and on account of which, he could develop the theory of caliphate. This writing is to study the fundamental role of Asha’ri towards the construction of the political thought of Sunnites and guarantee of the maintenance of caliphate.