Ottoman Kalamist Kemalpaşazade's Dual Understanding of Death

Abstract

Kemalpashazāde, who witnessed the golden age of the Ottoman Empire, conformed to his family tradition and served in military class for a while and then transferred to Ilmiye class (authority on religious law and education). After getting an advanced education, Kemalpashazāde both taught many students and wrote many books. On the other hand, he had the opportunity to utilize his expertise in bureaucracy. Although he was a prominent Fiqh scholar,  he proved to be a competent Kalam scholar with the explanations and footnotes he wrote on the classic writings of Kalam Kemalpashazāde wrote genuine risalas on  the  most Specific topics of Kalam such as qada and qadar (destiny, predestination), and appointed time; in this manner, in his books Risāle fi’l-cabr ve’l-kader ve Risāle fi’l-ecel he also interpreted the topic of appointed time on the same line with Ahl-I Sunnah’s qadar understanding. By evaluating the concept of appointed time in two categories as inevitable and suspended, he discussed a dual concept of appointed time and accused the ones who claimed one appointed time as erroneous. Nonetheless, in order not to be seen on the same line with Mu’tazila, he did not abstain from stating that his understanding of appointed time is different from theirs. Kemalpashazāde who considered the topic of appointed time from the Qur’an perspective used Tafsir and Qur’an works as his references. In Qur’an, the appointed time, which is one of the topics Kemalpashazāde wrote independent books, is used in different context and appropriate to its lexical meaning; and it refers to the lifetimes of humans and of the world, and also to the end of those lifetimes. Furthermore, the verses and the hadith use the concept of appointed time outside of its lexical meaning and they present it as an opportunity for humans to use it for performing good deeds. In this meaning, the appointed time is presented as a source of motivation that encourages humans to perform good deeds. The kalam sects (Sunni schools of law), they shaped the issue of appointed time in the direction of the qadar doctrines of their sects.