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Al-Ash'ari was born in 874. Al-Ashʿarī was born in the city of Basra, at that time one of the centres of intellectual ferment in Iraq, which, in turn, was the centre of the Muslim world. It is generally agreed that he belonged to the family of the celebrated Companion of the Prophet Abū Mūsā al-Ashʿarī (d. 662/663), though some theologians opposed to his ideas contest the claim.
As was the custom, his education commenced with long exposure to the Koran and the collected Traditions of the Prophet and his Companions.
As a young man he studied under al-Jubba'i, a renowned teacher of Mu'tazilite theology and philosophy.
Al-Ashʿarī’s family permitted him to devote himself entirely to research and study.
His works, especially the first part of Maqālāt al-Islāmīyīn, and the accounts of later historians record that al-Ashʿarī very early joined the school of the great theologians of that time, the Muʿtazilites. He became the favourite disciple of Abū ʿAlī al-Jubbāʾī, head of the Muʿtazilites of Basra in the final decades of the 3rd century ah (late 9th and early 10th centuries ad), and remained a Muʿtazilite until his 40th year. During that period of his life, he undertook the composition of a work in which he gathered the opinions of the diverse schools on the principal points of Muslim theology. This work, the first volume of the current edition of the Maqālāt, is valuable for what it records of Muʿtazilite doctrines. It remains one of the most important sources for retracing the history of the beginnings of Muslim theology.
At the age of 40, when he had become a specialist in theology and was well known for his oral controversies and his written works, al-Ashʿarī quit his master al-Jubbāʾī, abandoned Muʿtazilite doctrine, and was converted to a more traditional, or orthodox, Islāmic theology. It had become apparent to him that, in his former disputations, the reality of God as well as that of man had become so sterilized and desiccated that it had become little more than matter for rational manipulation.
Al-Ashʿarī, conscious of the desiccation of Muʿtazilite theology, did not hesitate to proclaim his new faith publicly, and the former Muʿtazilite started combating his colleagues of yesterday. He even attacked his old master, al-Jubbāʾī, refuting his arguments in speech and writing. It was then, perhaps, that he took up again his first work, the Maqālāt, to add to the objective exposition rectifications more conformable to his new beliefs. In this same period, he composed the work that marks clearly his break with the Muʿtazilite school: the Kitāb al-Lumaʿ (“The Luminous Book”).
It was not until his former master died at Basra in 915 that al-Ashʿarī decided to make Baghdad his centre. Arriving in the capital, he soon became aware of the importance assumed by a group of faithful of the sunnah, the disciples of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. Soon after, al-Ashʿarī composed, or perhaps put the last touches to, one of his most famous treatises, the Ibānah ʿan uṣūl ad-diyānah (“Statement on the Principles of the Religion”), which contains some passages venerating the memory of Ibn Ḥanbal.
In the years that followed, al-Ashʿarī, now installed in Baghdad, began to group around himself his first disciples. Focusing his theological reflection on certain positions of the mystic al-Muḥāsibī and of two theologians, Ibn Kullāb and Qalanisī, al-Ashʿarī laid the bases for a new school of theology distinct from both the Muʿtazilites and the Ḥanbalites. His three best-known disciples were al-Bāhilī, aṣ-Ṣuʿlūkī, and Ibn Mujāhid, all of whom transmitted the doctrines of their master to what later became the flourishing school of Khorāsān. After al-Ashʿarī died, his disciples slowly disentangled the main lines of doctrine that eventually became the stamp of the Ashʿarite school.
Al-Ashari died in Baghdad in 936.
Al-Ash'ari's school eventually won "wide acceptance within Sunni Islam, the official theological creed of which came largely to be defined by Ash'ari principles. " Alongside the theological school of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944), the Ash'ari school is sometimes defined in mainstream Sunni Islam as one of the two principal "orthodox theologies" of the faith, despite the fact that the more textualist school of Hanbali theology has survived alongside both of them.
Due to his role in combating the other splinter groups of theology, al-Ash'ari is honored in Sunni tradition by the epithets Imām al-mutakallimūn ("Leader of the Theologians") and Imām ahl as-sunnah wa l-jamāʿah ("Leader of the Sunnis").
He spent the remainder of his life composing theological polemics against the enemies of the orthodox position.
In line with Sunni tradition, al-Ash'ari held the view that a Muslim should not be considered an unbeliever on account of a sin even if it were an enormity such as drinking wine or theft. This opposed the position held by the Khawarij.
Al-Ash'ari also believed it impermissible to violently oppose a leader even if he were openly disobedient to the commands of the sacred law.
Quotes from others about the person
The 18th century Islamic scholar Shah Waliullah stated:
"A Mujadid appears at the end of every century: The Mujadid of the first century was Imam of Ahlul Sunnah, Umar bin Abdul Aziz. The Mujadid of the second century was Imam of Ahlul Sunnah Muhammad Idrees Shaafi. The Mujadid of the third century was the Imam of Ahlul Sunnah, Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari. The Mujadid of the fourth century was Abu Abdullah Hakim Nishapuri. "
