EBÛ SELEME ES-SEMERKANDÎ AND HIS CONCEPT OF UNDERSTANDING GOD

Abstract

UDK 28-42

It is known that the authors, after writing works of larger volume, often wrote summaries of it later in a form of treatise. This practice became part of Islamic scholar’s tradition and has survived till the present day. Very often we have abridged version written by the same author or his student presenting a summary of a book of larger volume. We might say that the treatise we shall discuss presently, some sections of which we will present in translated form as well, is a summary of the work written by the teacher of its author. Author of the treatise, Ebû Seleme es-Samarkandî, lived in the second half of the IV/X century in the city of Samarkand situated in today’s Uzbekistan, Transoxania region. A short treatise about fundamental tenets of faith titled Jumelu-Usûli-d-Dîn is listed among classical works of Hanefi-Maturidi school of aqaid. This article presents a short outline of the life of Ebû Seleme es-Samarkandi along with some information about his work Jumelu-Usûli-d-Dîn. Further, a translation of the section of the treatise relating about God and His Attributes is presented here as the most significant topic in the study of aqaid. This thematic translation of the section “About God (Ilahiyat)” from the treatise Jumelu-Usûli-d-Dîn is done from the manuscript in the section Ali Pasha No. 1648/1 in Suleymaniye Library in Istanbul and is the first translation of it to Bosnian language.