Ebu Al-Hasan Al-Ashari's understanding of hadith

Understanding of the hadiths and the epistemological value that they express are among the leading issues of hadith problems. The fact that Ash'ari has an important place in the history of Islamic thought makes his ideas significant. It is also noteworthy that he used hadith intensively in his books. Although he is a theologian, his interpretations of the hadiths and using them as evidence on theological issues are important in terms of understanding the hadiths and determining their epistemological values. The fact that most of his works have not reached the present day, that he sometimes used contradictory statements and that different opinions attributed to him can be mentioned among the difficulties of the study. The study is generally discussed within the scope of Ash'ari's books. In this work, the opinions that he mentioned in his own works were accepted as the main ones, but where necessary, the opinions attributed to him by others were also mentioned. Moreover, the sources of the hadiths he used are pointed out, authenticity evaluations have also been made where necessary. The meanings given by Ash'ari to the terms related to the hadith have been tried to be determined. Ash'ari while substantiating his thoughts, used the isolated tradition as well as the massively transmitted hadiths as evidence. He sometimes mentioned them together with the verses while sometimes provided evidence just with hadiths.