Ahmad ibn Chābit

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Ahmad ibn Chābit ( Arabic احمد بن خابط, DMG Aḥmad ibn Ḫābiṭ , died between 842 and 847) was a Muʿtazilite theologian who was known for his special teaching on the transmigration of spirits . His patronymic is uncertain: next to ibn Chābit one can also find the spellings ibn Hābit (بن حابط, DMG ibn Ḥābiṭ ) and ibn Hāyit (بن حايط, DMG ibn Ḥāyiṭ ).

Ahmad came from a well-known Baghdad family and was a student of the well-known Muʿtazilite an-Nazzām , to whom he was very close in teaching. Like him, he was an opponent of atomism and also followed his theory of movement that takes place in leaps ( ṭafra ). In Nazzām's anthropological teaching system, the entry and exit of the spirit at the beginning and end of life played an important role. Ahmad's theory of the transmigration of spirits ( tanāsuch ) was based on this idea .

According to Ahmad's system of teaching, living beings were created together with the world at the beginning, all at once, as spirit beings that did not differ according to species . As such, they were placed in paradise. As spirit beings, they were endowed with knowledge, the ability to act and the knowledge of God from the beginning and were obliged to keep the commandments to him, in particular to thank him for having put them in paradise. Those who obeyed all of God's commandments were kept by God as his companions; those who refused to obey him he cast into hell for eternal punishment; but those who incurred guilt without denying the commandments, he punished according to sura 20 : 123 with the fall into this world.

The fallen spirits are not only plagued on earth, but also experience happiness in their human shell, in which they were enclosed, but have to prove themselves repeatedly, because prophets are sent to them again and again. Depending on their behavior, the “compact shell” ( qālab kaṯīf ) in which they are enclosed changes. As they add more sins on earth to the sins they committed in Paradise, they will receive an animal cover in their next life. Since there is also a law with animals, they can load more sins on themselves here and then be punished with an uglier shell in the next life. From this, however, Ahmad does not derive a ban on killing animals, because since they are supposed to be punished, the divine plan of salvation is fulfilled with the killing and slaughter of the animals.

The movement of the spirits entering again and again into new envelopes, which takes place in “loops and repetitions” ( takwīr wa-takrīr ), comes to an end, however, when the spirits either enter paradise completely purified or finally go to hell drive. Here there is a difference to the transmigration ideas of the ghoulāt , because they knew no afterlife .

A special feature of Ahmad's teaching system was also the assumption that the human and animal worlds were parallel. He derived this from the observation of ant populations as well as from those verses of the Koran that speak of the animals being organized in communities (especially Sura 6 : 38). That animals also have prophets, he derived from sura 35:24 , where it is said that a prophet has been sent to every community , as well as the statement in sura 16 : 68 that God has given the bee ( auḥā ) like theirs Build honeycombs. The Arabic verb that is used here for “enter” is the same one that is used for prophetic revelation ( waḥy ).

Muhammad al-Shahrastani narrates from Ahmad ibn Chābiṭ that, like the Christians, he attached divine attributes to Jesus Christ and taught of him that as the primordial eternal Logos ( al-kalima al-qadīma ) he clothed a physical body.

Because of his transmigration doctrine, which was considered heresy, Ahmad ibn Chābiṭ was reported by other Muʿtazilites to the caliph al-Wāthiq bi-'llāh . He commissioned his chief Qādī Ahmad ibn Abī Duʾād to investigate, but the matter petered out because Ahmad died before he took action. This also gives the only clue for his life data. His death must have occurred between 842 and 847. Some later heresiographers denied Ahmad ibn Chābiṭ the status of a Muslim entirely .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. van Ess 431.
  2. ↑ Cf. van Ess 432.
  3. ↑ Cf. van Ess 432-434.
  4. ↑ Cf. van Ess III 435.
  5. ↑ Cf. van Ess III 433.
personal data
SURNAME Ahmad ibn Chābit
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Muʿtazilite theologian
DATE OF BIRTH 8th century or 9th century
DATE OF DEATH between 842 and 847