Türk Kültürü ve Hacı Bektaş Velî Araştırma Dergisi (Dec 2017)
MÂTÜRÎDÎ ÖĞRETİSİNİN YESEVÎ SUFİLİĞİNDEKİ YANSIMALARI [REFLECTION OF MÂTÜRÎDÎ’S APPROACH ON THE SUFISM OF YASAVÎ]
Abstract
Imam Mâtürîdî, who is one of the founders of madhab al-Ahl as-Sunnah, followed the tradition of Abu Hanife and restated some of his ideas. Sheyh Ahmad Yasavî was also an important Sufi who grew up in the Hanafi- Mâtürîdî environment of learning and knowledge. It is difficult to directly compare Mâtürîdî and Ahmad Yasavi in terms of the sphere of their ideas. The reason is that they differ in their intentions, methodologies and fields. Furthermore, Ahmad Yasavi and Yasavism were premised on Hanefism and Mâtürîdîsm which solved a large number of basic religious problems before Yasavism. Mâtürîdî is known as an theoretical and practical interpreter of religion. Mâtürîdî interpret the religionneither like the Kharijites who commented upon the religion with a literal comprehension, nor like the Shia who commented upon the religion with an esoteric comprehension. Instead of Shia or Kharjites, he maintained his Hanafi tradition and developed a theology that was based on circle of Qur’an and Sunnah. The human is in the center of this theology with the balance of wisdom. As a representative of Hanafi- Mâtürîdî tradition, Mâtürîdî lived and worked in the Turkistan region. Being a follower of the same path, Ahmed Yasavi improved Mâtürîdî’s moral teaching. No esoteric/ internal or literal/external exaggerations that may be harmful for the basic principles of Islam can be found in Yasavi’s teaching. Constantly declaring that he is a follower of Sharia and Islamic rules, Yasavi repents of his lost prayers (salah), prays for forgiveness of Allah for his sins with excuses and asks the consent of God. Sometimes he criticizes cruel politicians who tortured the poor people and complains about social corruptions. He was a pure servant of the God, a keen follower of the Messenger with full of the Messenger’s love in his heart and a believer who prepared himself for the journey Hereafter. The present study deals with descriptions of the relationship between Imam Mâtürîdî and Ahmad Yasavi in basic issues such as creedal (aqaid) principles, politics and moral problems. In addition to some untouched topics of Yasavi, I will mention some problems that they are distinctive from other Sufi movements.
