ASPECTS OF THE CREED OF IMAM AHMAD IBN HANBAL: A STUDY OF ANTHROPOMORPHISM IN EARLY ISLAMIC DISCOURSE

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Today, the religion of Islam is most distinctly characterized by the emphasis it places on the transcendence of God.¹ God's otherness (mukhālafa), it is said, is presupposed in Islamic thinking from the Qurءan.² A review of the history of dogmatic development in Islam reveals, however, that during the formative period—that is, the period to about 950³—divine transcendence was only one alternative among several models attempting to explain God's unity. Indeed, it coexisted alongside its antithesis, “assimilation” (tashbīh), or as we term it, anthropomorphism.⁴ Muslim and Western scholars agree that, although the anthropomorphist model certainly existed—the various heresiographies attest to it—it existed only on the margins of Islam, in the extravagant fancies of a few deviant doctors.⁵ Thus, anthropomorphist ideas were relevant only marginally, if at all, to Islam's attempt at theological self-definition. Such, at least, is the current scholarly consensus. But how accurate is this reading of Islam's theological history?