Mu'tazilism

Part of a series on
Aqidah
Silhouette of a mosque
Sunni
Six Articles of Iman
Five Pillars of Islam
Schools of theology
Shi'a
Basic Tenets of Faith
Theology of the Twelvers4, 5
Theology of the Ismailis6
Theology of the Zaydis
Muhakkima
Theology of the Ibadis
Other variants

Including:


Islam portal

Mu'tazilism (Arabic: المعتزلة, romanized: al-muʿtazila, singular Arabic: معتزلي, romanized: muʿtazilī) is an Islamic theological school that appeared in early Islamic history and flourished in Basra and Baghdad. Its adherents, the Mu'tazilites, were known for their neutrality in the dispute between Ali and his opponents after the death of the third caliph, Uthman. By the 10th century the term al-muʿtazilah had come to refer to a distinctive Islamic school of speculative theology (kalām).[1][2][3] This school of theology was founded by Wasil ibn Ata.[4]

The later Mu'tazila school developed an Islamic type of rationalism, partly influenced by ancient Greek and Indian philosophy, based around three fundamental principles: the oneness (Tawhid) and justice (Al-'adl) of God,[5] human freedom of action, and the creation of the Quran.[6] The Mu'tazilites are best known for rejecting the doctrine of the Quran as uncreated and co-eternal with God,[7] asserting that if the Quran is the literal word of God, he logically "must have preceded his own speech".[8] This went against the orthodox Sunni position (followed by the Ashʿarī, Māturīdī and the traditionalist Athari schools) which argued that with God being all-knowing, his knowledge of the Quran must have been eternal, hence uncreated just like him.[8][9] The school also worked to resolve the theological "problem of evil",[10] arguing that since God is just and wise, he cannot command what is contrary to reason or act with disregard for the welfare of His creatures; consequently evil must be regarded as something that stems from errors in human acts, arising from man's divinely bestowed free will.[11][12] The Mu'tazila opposed secular rationalism, but believed that human intelligence and reason allowed Man to understand religious principles; that good and evil are rational categories that could be "established through unaided reason".[10][13][14][15][16]

The movement reached its political height during the Abbasid Caliphate during the "mihna", an 18-year period (833–851 CE) of religious persecution instituted by the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun where religious scholars were punished, imprisoned, or even killed unless they conformed to Mu'tazila doctrine, until it was reversed by al-Mutawakkil.[17][18] The Aghlabids (800–909 CE) also adhered to Mu'tazilism, which they imposed as the state doctrine of Ifriqiya.[19] Similarly, the leading elite figures of the Graeco-Arabic translation movement during the reign of al-Hakam II (r. 961–976) were followers of the Mu'tazila.[20] Mu'tazilism also flourished to some extent during the rule of the Buyids (934–1062 CE) in Iraq and Persia.[21]

  1. ^ "Muʿtazilah Archived 2018-06-21 at the Wayback Machine", Encyclopaedia Britannica.
  2. ^ NEAL ROBINSON (1998). "Ash'ariyya and Mu'tazila". muslimphilosophy.com. Archived from the original on 2011-11-20. Retrieved 2012-11-05.
  3. ^ "Different views on human freedom – Mu'tazilites and Asharites – Authority in Islam – GCSE Religious Studies Revision – OCR". BBC Bitesize. Archived from the original on 2021-06-21. Retrieved 2021-06-19.
  4. ^ Ellwood, Robert S.; McGraw, Barbara A. (30 September 2022). Many Peoples, Many Faiths: Women and Men in the World Religions. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9780429844584.
  5. ^ Fakhry, Majid (1983). A History of Islamic Philosophy (second ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 46. Almost all authorities agree that the speculation of the Muʿtazilah centers around the two crucial concepts of divine justice and unity, of which they claim to be the exclusive, genuine exponents.
  6. ^ Campanini, Massimo (2012). "The Mu'tazila in Islamic History and Thought". Religion Compass. 6: 41–50. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8171.2011.00273.x. Archived from the original on 2021-07-19. Retrieved 2021-01-09.
  7. ^ Abdullah Saeed. The Qur'an: an introduction. 2008, page 203
  8. ^ a b Kadri, Sadakat (2012). Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia to the Streets of the Modern Muslim World. macmillan. p. 77. ISBN 9780099523277. Archived from the original on 2021-02-25. Retrieved 2015-09-16.
  9. ^ Watt, W. Montgomery (1985). Islamic philosophy and theology : an extended survey. Edinburgh. ISBN 0-85224-487-8. OCLC 13360530.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ a b Fakhry, Majid (1983). A History of Islamic Philosophy (second ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. 47. The early Muslim theologians had naturally been unanimous in denying that God could be unjust, but the problem of reconciling the justice of God and the glaring reality of evil in the world does not appear to have disturbed them particularly. And it was precisely this problem that became, from Wasil's time on the crucial issue with which the Muʿtazilah and their adversaries grappled.... [According to the Muʿtazila,] good and evil are not conventional or arbitrary concepts whose validity is rooted in the dictates of God, as the Traditionists and later the Ashʿarites held, but are rational categories which can be established through unaided reason
  11. ^ Al-Shahrastani, al-Milal, p.31 f
  12. ^ Al-Baghdadi, Usul al Din, pp.150f
  13. ^ Al-Baghdadi, A.Q.,Usul al Din, Istanbul, 1928, pp.26f
  14. ^ Al-Shahrastani, M.,al-Milal wa'l-Nihal, London, 1892, p.31
  15. ^ al-Ash'ari, Maqalat, p.356
  16. ^ Oussama Arabi. Studies in Modern Islamic Law and Jurisprudence. page 27–28
  17. ^ Muhammad Qasim Zaman (1997). Religion and Politics Under the Early ?Abbasids: The Emergence of the Proto-Sunni Elite. BRILL. pp. 106–112. ISBN 978-90-04-10678-9. Archived from the original on 2019-12-17. Retrieved 2019-05-03.
  18. ^ [1] Archived 2021-06-14 at the Wayback Machine (PDF)
  19. ^ Abun-Nasr, Jamil (1987). A history of the Maghrib in the Islamic period. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 57. ISBN 0521337674.
  20. ^ Julio Samsó; Maribel Fierro (23 October 2019). "&pg=PR27 The Formation of al-Andalus, Part 2: Language, Religion, Culture and the Sciences. Taylor & Francis. p. 27. ISBN 978-1-351-88957-5. Archived from the original on 14 October 2021. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  21. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-08-30. Retrieved 2020-10-29.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)