Ibn Kullab headed a group made up of mainly direct and second generation students of Al-Shafi that included Al-Karibisi, Al-Qalanisi, Al-Muhasibi, Al-Bukhari, Abu Thawr and Dawud-al Zahiri.[12] They were known for their extreme criticism of Jahmis, Mu'tazilis, and Anthropomorphists by using rationalistic methods (Kalaam) to defend orthodox creedal points of Sunni Islam.[13] They contradicted the Mu'tazili doctrine of Khalq al-Qur'an (Createdness of the Qur'an) by introducing a distinction between the words of God (Kalam Allah) and its pronunciation.[14]
Abu Muhammad 'Abdallah ibn Sa'id ibn Kullab al-Qattan al-Basri al-Tamimi.[11]
Life
He belonged to the generation of Ahmad ibn Hanbal and Ishaq ibn Rahwayh. His precise year of birth is unknown, but he lived in the period of the 'Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun.
^According to Benjamin Jokisch, those who converted to Islam became known as Nawabit (Neophytes) and formed the fundament of the traditionalist opposition in Baghdad.[8] However it was also used by scholars such as al-Jahiz as a term for a group he and other Mu'tazilites grew increasingly worried at for they were seen as more intellectually able than them and had advanced in Kalam. Al-Jahiz confesses that they have been building up a type of solidarity against the Mu'tazila and have become aggressive against them, claiming to have on their side, "the masses, the recluses, the jurists, the hadith people and the ascetics". Wadad al-Qadi notes that all of those who wrote on them, aside from one, were Mu'tazilites or Mu'tazilite sympathisers and that he finds it curious that none of the Muslim heresiographers mention them as a sect, aside from Ibn al-Nadim, who Wadad would hesitate to call a heresiographer. Wadad concludes, "Indeed, under different names, they are still with us today."[9]
^The Kullabiyya, a moderate traditionalist movement, which was intended to revive the early Sunni Islam and later on turned into the Ash'ariyya.[8]
^In contrast, J. Halverson notes: 'Conversely, when we look at Hanbalism too, we can see quite clearly that it is incorrect to consider Hanbalism and “Atharism” to be synonymous. The works of Hanbalite scholars such as Ibn 'Aqil (d. 1119 CE), Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 1201 CE), and Najm al-Din al-Tufi (d. 1 316 CE), among a few others, reveal instances of distinctly theological ideas occurring within Hanbalism, making it a far more diverse tradition than one may otherwise suspect. However, the overwhelming majority of Hanbalites did indeed fall firmly within the Athari camp with its unyielding rejection of theology. . . The Atharis can thus be described as a school or movement led by a contingent of scholars (ulama), typically Hanbalite or even Shafi'ite, that retained influence, or at the very least a shared sentiment and conception of piety, well beyond the limited range of Hanbalite communities. This body of scholars continued to reject theology in favour of strict textualism well after Ash'arism had infiltrated the Sunni schools of law. It is for these reasons that we must delineate the existence of a distinctly traditionalist, anti-theological movement, which defies strict identification with any particular madhhab, and therefore cannot be described as Hanbalite.'[10]
^Jamil, Khairil Husaini Bin. "Ḥadīth, Piety and Law: Selected Studies." By Christopher Melchert. Atlanta, Georgia: Lockwood Press, 2015. Pp. 359. ISBN978-1-937040-49-9. (2018): 263-267. "Melchert has proposed several names such as al-Karābīsī, Ibn Kullāb, al-Muḥāsibi, al-Qalānisī and others who were loosely associated with al-Shāfiʿī..."
^Farid Suleiman (2019). Ibn Taymiyya und die Attribute Gottes (in German). Walter de Gruyter GmbH. p. 71. ISBN9783110623277. Diese sind vielmehr – wie der ašʿaritische Doxograph ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baġdādī (gest. 429/1037) sie nennt – die frühen Generationen der spekulativen Theologen unter den Traditionalisten (al-mutaqaddimün min mutakallimi ahl al-hadit);" allen voran Ibn Kulläb (gest. 241/855), aber auch Denker wie al-Muhäsibi (gest. 243/857) und al-Qalänisi (bl. in der zweiten Hälfte des 3./9. Jhs.).
^The Adversaries of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal. Christopher Melchert T. 44, Fasc. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 234-253:
"Al-Karabisi's (And Ibn Kullabs) doctrine of the pronunciation was taken up after him by Ahmad al-Sarrak (fl. ca. 240/854-855), Abu Thawr (d. 240/854), Ibn Kullab (d. ca. 240/854-855), al-Harit al-Muhasibi (d. 243/857-858), Dawud al-Zahiri (d. 270/884), and even al-Bukhari (d. 256/870). Indeed, most of the known semi-rationalist Kullabi school were loosely associated with Al-Shafi'i."