Il concetto di ‘amā’ nella tradizione classica (VIII-X SEC.)

Abstract

According to a ‘tradition’ attributed to Abū Razīn al- ‘Uqaylī, before the creation God was in an amā’, a term which was a point of reflection un sunna and in šī a, too. The sunna gave two interpretations with regard to this subject: one literal, which interpreted ‘amā’ as ‘clouds’, and one metaphorical which, reading ‘amà instead of ‘amā’, interpreted the word as ‘nothingness’. As to the šī a, it did not recognize this ‘tradition’, because the possibility of locating God in a ‘place’ or ‘space’ would invalidate the principle of the tawḥīd, as the ‘place’ would share with God both His divinity and eternity. In both cases, the different interpretations were intended to confirm, although in a different way, the Islamic postulate according to which at the moment of creation God was alone.