Determinism and Choice among Ottoman Theologians: The Tenth Century AH as a Model

Abstract

The dispute over the issue of human choice appeared early in Islamic history between the Qadarites and the Jabrites in the first Hijri century, and the debate over it continued throughout the stages of Islamic history. The theologians of the Ottoman Empire were not isolated from these discussions, but they had a special feature that required us to stop and study it. But they had a peculiarity that calls for stopping at it with research and study, which is that despite their being greatly influenced by the Ash'ari school of thought in theology, and by philosophical Sufism as well, and these are two matters that require a tendency towards the belief in determinism, even at least in one of its levels, they adhered to proving the choice of the human beings and denying determinism from them. This is the saying of the Maturidis and their doctrine of belief to which they classified separate treatises. This study aims to trace the research of the most prominent Ottoman theologians on this issue in the tenth century and analyze their opinions according to their historical and cognitive contexts. It also aims to classify their approaches to dealing with it, as research approaches and perspectives may differ, while the results are consistent, with an analysis of those opinions in the context of the scientific circumstances that preceded and were contemporary to them.