A Muhaddith Theologian: Shamsaddīn al-Kirmānī and His Commentary on al-Mawāqif (A Study on the Subject of Knowledge and Reasoning)

The disciplines of hadith and kalām, which are among the disciplines that have developed in the history of Islamic thought, have two different methods that are likely to conflict with each other in some cases. While kalām aims to base religion on reason, hadith places the sunnah of the Prophet (s.a.v) at the center of religious understanding. In this respect, the main motivation of this study is to question whether these two disciplines are essentially opposite to each other and whether conflict is inevitable. In the study, this inquiry was made through Shamsaddīn al-Kirmānī, a famous muhaddith and also a theologian. The main purpose of the study is to observe whether alKirmānī’s identity as a muhaddith and a theologian lead to a disagreement on the issue of knowledge. For this observation we chose his commentary named al-Kawāshif, which was written on the famous theological book of Adududdin al-Ījī, al-Mawākqif. In addition, we have been consulted to al-Kirmānī’s work called al-Kawākıb al-Darārī, which is the commentary of Sakhīh al-Bukhārī. As far as we can see, al-Kirmānī does not think differently from the theologians in general in the ways of reaching the right knowledge and in the demonstration of knowledge and does not make any claim that the methods of hadith and kalam conflict with each other. This situation supports the opinion that conflict between the aforementioned disciplines are not necessary and that both disciplines can be interpreted in a way that supports each other. In the study, we also aimed to introduce al-Kirmānī’s commentary on al-Mawākqif briefly.