Theological views of Bahâuddinzâde on the basis of his al-Qawl al-Fasl which is a commentary of al-Fiqh al-Akbar

This study aims to understand the theological opinions of Ottoman period scholar and sufi Bahâuddinzâde with his work named al-Qawl al-Fasl. al-Qawl al-Fasl is an explanation of al-Fiqh al-Akbar, which is one of the most important works of Abu Hanifah that contributed to the organization of the beliefs of the followers of sunnad. Abu Hanifah defined the belief as knowing everything in favor and in detriment of the person and emphasized it as the biggest part of the Islamic law and thus according to him Kalam was "al-Fiqh al-Akbar". He named his work as al-Fiqh al-Akbar that included the key issues of the belief. Consequently, this work has continued to be relevant today by having been interpreted with different approaches and having been a subject for many works. al-Qawl al-Fasl, brought a new discourse to al-Fiqh al-Akbar by being a part of this process, explaining it with deep philosophical descriptions and by being shaped with the loyalty of Bahâuddinzâde to Abu Hanifah and followers of sunnad. Interpreting a text correctly requires firstly knowing the author, and recognizing the scientific, intellectual, political and social environment in which he grew up. For this reason, the first part of our study is devoted to identifying the infrastructures of thought by researching the periods that both Abu Hanifah and Bahâuddinzâde lived. The fact that the work was a sharh written during the Ottoman period required a general information about the sharh tradition of this period. Subsequently, the work of al-Qawl al-Fasl, which caused Bahâuddinzâde to be called as sufi-theologian, was examined in terms of text and content, and thus, it was possible to recognize Bahâuddinzâde's views. In al-Qavl al-Fasl, concepts and extended issues that are different from al-Fiqh al-Akbar's concise, short and clear structure are important in terms of recognizing the thought structure of the period. Although it can be said that these concepts are interpreted from the point of view of Bahâuddinzâde in the commentary with the traces of the sufi identity, it should be emphasized that the general style of the work is a theological style. In the conclusion part, the information obtained as a result of the study is summarized.