ON THE DOCTRINES OF THE MU'TAZILA AND THE QADARIYYA
[Ed. Qadariyya are not to be confused with the Sufi order of the Qadiriyya].
The Mu'tazila [Separatists] came to be so called on account of their separation [i'tizal] from the truth, or, as some prefer to put it, because of their separation from the generally accepted doctrines [aqawil] of the Muslims. This separation came about in the following circumstances:
The members of the Muslim community were in disagreement over the question of how to classify a person who has committed a major sin [kabira]. Some of them said: "Such people are believers [mu'minun], to the extent of the faith [iman] they still possess." There were also some among them who said: "No, they are unbelievers [kafirun]." Then along came Wasil ibn 'Ata' with a third opinion on the issue. He parted company with the Muslims, and separated himself off from the believers, for he said: "Those who commit major sins are neither believers nor unbelievers."
There we have one explanation of how they [as the followers of Wasil ibn 'Ata'] came to be known as the Mu'tazila. According to some, however, they acquired this name on account of their i'tizal [separation in the sense of withdrawal or secession] from the council [majlis] convened by al-Hasan al-Basri (may Allah bestow His mercy upon him). As he walked past them, al-Hasan remarked:
"These people are mu'tazila [a bunch of separatists]," and so it came about that this nickname stuck to them.
They also looked up to 'Amr ibn 'Ubaid as one of their leaders. On a certain occasion, when al-Hasan al-Basri became angry with 'Amr ibn 'Ubaid, and was sharply criticized on that account, he responded by saying: "How dare you rebuke me so harshly for the sake of a such a man? I saw him in a dream, prostrating himself in worship to the sun instead of to Allah!"
As for the Qadariyya, they are so called because of their refusal to acknowledge the foreordainment [qada'] of Allah (Almighty and Glorious is He) and His predestination [qadar] with respect to the sins of disobedience committed by His human servants, and because of their insistence that human beings are themselves the authors of those actions.
With respect to the denial of the divine attributes [nafy as-sifat], the doctrine of the Mu'tazila, the Jahmiyya and the Qadariyya is one and the same. We have already discussed some of their teachings on the subject of religious belief [i'tiqad].
The name of the authors who compiled their textbooks are as follows: Abu'l-Hudhail, Ja'far ibn Harb, al-Khayyat, al-Ka'bi, Abu Hashim, Abu 'Abdi'llah al-Basri, and 'Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad al-Hamadhani.
The majority of the people who adhere to their doctrine are to be found in [the districts of the Iranian province of Khuzistan called] al-'Askar, al-Ahwaz and Jahzam.1
They can be subdivided into six factions, namely the Hudhaliyya, the Nazzamiyya, the Mu'ammariyya, the Jubba'iyya, the Ka'biyya and the Bahshamiyya.
The point on which all the various factions of the Mu'tazila are in virtually unanimous agreement is the negation of the divine attributes [sifat] in their entirety. They deny that Allah (Almighty and Glorious is He) has knowledge ['ilm], power [qudra], life [hayat], and the faculties of hearing [sam'] and sight [basar].
They likewise deny the reality of those divine attributes that have been corroborated by traditional report, such as istiwa' [firmly establishing Himself (on the Throne)], nuzul [descending (to the heaven of this lower world)], as well as others that could be mentioned.
They are also in general agreement in professing the following doctrines:
 | That the Speech [kalam] of Allah is not eternal, but has been created subsequent to the beginning of time, and that His Will [irada] is likewise a product of creation [muhdatha]. |
| That He speaks [not directly but] by means of a faculty of speech that He has created in others, and that He wills by means of a will that has been brought into existence for no effective purpose [la fi mahall]. |
| That He (Exalted is He) may wish for something contrary to that which has been fixed by His own predetermination [yuridu khilafa ma'lumih]. |
| That He may want from His servants something that will never come to be, while something that He does not wish may actually come into being. |
| That He (Exalted is He) is powerless to influence the decisions made by others, and that the very idea of His exercising such influence is really quite absurd. |
| That He does not create the actions of His servants, since they themselves, not their Lord, are the creators of those actions. |
| That much of the food consumed as nourishment by a human being is not made available to him by the providence of Allah-not, that is, in the case where the food is unlawful [haram], since the only food provided by Allah is that which is lawful [halal], to the exclusion of what is unlawful. |
| That a human being may be killed before his appointed time [ajal], and that the killer may cut the life of his victim short, before the moment when he was destined to die. |
| That if anyone professing to be a monotheist [muwahhid] is guilty of committing a major sin, even if the offense does not amount to explicit unbelief [kufr], he thereby removes himself from the protection of his faith [iman] and is doomed to abide in the Fire of Hell for all eternity, while all his good deeds are rendered null and void. They even maintain that the intercession [shafa'a] of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) can be of no avail as far as people guilty of major sins [ahl al-kaba'ir] are concerned. |
| Most of them deny the reality of the torment of the tomb ['adhab al-qabr]. |
| They regard it as permissible to rebel against the ruler [sultan] and to withdraw one's obedience from him. |
| They reject the idea that a person who has died can receive any benefit through an offering made on his behalf by someone who is still alive, whether it be a prayer of supplication [du'a'] or an act of charity [sadaqa], for they do not believe that the spiritual reward for such an offering could ever reach him. |
| They also maintain that Allah (Glory be to Him) did not speak to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad (the blessings of Allah be upon them all), not to Gabriel, not to Michael, not to Israfil, and not to the bearers of the Heavenly Throne [hamalat al-'arsh], nor did He look upon them, just as He does not speak to Iblis and the Jews and Christians. |
Muʿtazilah, (Arabic: Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart) English Mutazilites, in Islām, political or religious neutralists; by the 10th century the term came to refer specifically to an Islāmic school of speculative theology that flourished in Basra and Baghdad (8th–10th centuries ad).
The name first appears in early Islāmic history in the dispute over ʿAlī’s leadership of the Muslim community after the murder of the third caliph, ʿUthmān (656). Those who would neither condemn nor sanction ʿAlī or his opponents but took a middle position were termed the Muʿtazilah.
The theological school is traced back to Wāṣil ibn ʿAṭāʾ (699–749), a student of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, who by stating that a grave sinner ( fāsiq) could be classed neither as believer nor unbeliever but was in an intermediate position (al-manzilah bayna manzilatayn), withdrew (iʿtazala, hence the name Muʿtazilah) from his teacher’s circle. (The same story is told of ʿAmr ibn ʿUbayd [d. 762].) Variously maligned as free thinkers and heretics, the Muʿtazilah, in the 8th century ad, were the first Muslims to use the categories and methods of Hellenistic philosophy to derive their three major and distinctive dogmatic points.
First, they stressed the absolute unity or oneness (tawḥīd) of God. From this it was logically concluded that the Qurʾān could not be technically considered the word of God (the orthodox view), as God has no separable parts, and so had to be created and was not coeternal with God. Under the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Maʾmūn, this doctrine of the created Qurʾān was proclaimed (827) as the state dogma, and in 833, a miḥnah or tribunal was instituted to try those who disputed the doctrine (notably the theologian Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal); the Muʿtazilī position was finally abandoned by the caliphate under al-Mutawakkil c. 849. The Muʿtazilah further stressed the justice (ʿadl) of God as their second principle. While the orthodox were concerned with the awful will of God to which each individual must submit himself without question, the Muʿtazilah posited that God desires only the best for man, but through free will man chooses between good and evil and thus becomes ultimately responsible for his actions. So in the third doctrine, the threat and the promise (al-waʿd wa al-waʿīd), or paradise and hell, God’s justice becomes a matter of logical necessity: God must reward the good (as promised) and must punish the evil (as threatened).
Among the most important Muʿtazilī theologians were Abū al-Hudhayl al-ʿAllāf (d. c. 841) and an-Naẓẓām (d. 846) in Basra and Bishr ibn al-Muʿtamir (d. 825) in Baghdad. It was al-Ashʿarī (d. 935 or 936), a student of the Muʿtazilī al-Jubbāʾī, who broke the force of the movement by refuting its teachings with the same Hellenistic, rational methods first introduced by the Muʿtazilah. Muʿtazilī beliefs were disavowed by the Sunnite Muslims, but the Shīʿites accepted their premises.
Mu'tazilah
In Islam, one of two early religious groups. The term applies primarily to members of a theological school that flourished in Al-Basrah and Baghdad in the 8th–10th century. These Mu'tazilah were the first Muslims to employ systematically the categories and methods of Hellenistic philosophy to derive their dogma. The tenets of their faith included belief in the oneness of God (tawhid), advocation of human free will (the ability to choose between good and evil), and the fundamental belief in God's fairness (i.e., God will punish only those deserving of punishment). Their doctrine of a created Qur'an (the eternal nature of which was advocated by their opponents) held sway in the caliphal court briefly in the early 9th century and was the first instance in the Muslim world in which political authorities attempted to enforce any form of doctrinal rigour; the Mu'tazilah theological program soon lost political sway, however, and had faded by the 13th century. Though it was ultimately abandoned by Sunnite Muslims (the group's methods came to be accepted by some Shi'ite groups), its true importance lay in the fact that it forced other theological groups to embrace a more rigorous dialectical method (see kalam).
In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Al-Mu'tazilah
The article was collected by Ummu Mariam.
Verily, all praises and thanks are due to Allah, we praise Him, seek His help and His forgiveness. We seek refuge with Allah from the evils of our souls and evils of our deeds. One whom Allah guides none can lead him astray, and one whom He misguides, none can guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, and I bear witness that Muhammad (SAAS) is His servant and His messenger.
"O you who believe! Fear Allah (by doing all that He has ordered and by abstaining from all that He has forbidden) as He should be feared. (Obey Him, be thankful to Him, and remember Him always), and die not except in a state of Islam [as Muslims (with complete submission to Allah)]." (Al-Qur‘aan 3:102 - interpretation of the meaning)
"O mankind! Be dutiful to your Lord, Who created you from a single person (Adam), and from him (Adam) He created his wife (Eve), and from them both He created many men and women and fear Allah through Whom you demand your mutual (rights), and (do not cut the relations of) the wombs (kinship). Surely, Allah is Ever an All-Watcher over you." (Al-Qur‘aan 4:1 - interpretation of the meaning)
"O you who believe! Keep your duty to Allah and fear Him, and speak (always) the truth. He will direct you to do righteous good deeds and will forgive you your sins. And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger (SAAS) he has indeed achieved a great achievement (i.e. he will be saved from the Hell-fire and made to enter Paradise)." (Al-Qur‘aan 33:70-71 - interpretation of the meaning)
Ammaa ba'd (as for what follows), the best of speech is the speech of Allah that is the Book of Allah. The best of guidance is the guidance of Muhammad (SAAS). Of all matters, the worst are innovations; and everything new is an innovation, and every innovation is a deviation, and every deviation leads to Hell-fire.
Al-Mu'tazilah are from the Rationalist school of thought and have very many deviations in their methodological principles. Al-Mu'tazilah means "those who separated". It originated in 8th century in Basra when Waasel ibn 'Ataa‘ al-Ghazzaal (700-748) left the teaching lessons of the distinguished scholar al-Hasan al-Basri (642-728) after a theological dispute on the question relating to the definition applicable to the Muslim who commits a major sin, and hence he and his followers were termed al-Mu'tazilah. Later, al-Mu'tazilah called themselves Ahl-ul-'Adl wat-Tauhiid (People of Justice and Monotheism) based on the theology they advocated.
Al-Mu'tazilah adopted the position that a Muslim who commits a major sin without repenting occupies a middle state between being a Muslim and not being a Muslim. Al-Mu'tazilah theology developed on logic and rationalism from Greek philosophy, and sought to combine Islamic doctrines with the former, and show that they are inherently compatible. At the time of the rise of the 'Abbasids in 750 al-Mu'tazilah began to become prominent in the Islamic world. In the 9th century the 'Abbasid caliph, al-Ma‘muun, raised al-Mu'tazilah doctrine to the status of the state creed. Openly supported by the caliphate, al-Mu'tazilah became increasingly intolerant and began to persecute their opponents. On one occasion the eminent Sunni scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 855), was subjected to flogging and imprisonment for his refusal to subscribe to al-Mu'tazilah doctrine that al-Qur‘aan was created in time.
Al-Mu'tazilah tenets focus on the five principles:
1. Tauhiid - Monotheism. They deny the attributes of Allah and thus, consider passages in al-Qur‘aan that describe the Essence of Allah to be regarded as metaphorical rather than literal. From this follows that they believe that Allah cannot be seen - in the literal sense of the term - in the Hereafter. Al-Mu'tazilah also argued that al-Qur‘aan could not be eternal, but created by Allah.
2. Al-'adl - Divine Justice. Allah does no evil and He wills and does only that which is good. They also deny Divine Predestination and consider that men have control over their voluntary acts, in other words, they are themselves the producers of them. Therefore, people are entirely responsible for their decisions and actions.
3. Al-wa'd wal-wa'iid - Promise and Threat. Allah would reward those who obeyed Him with what He promised, and punish those who disobeyed with threats of hellfire. On account of the 'threat' uttered against believer in al-Qur‘aan, every Muslim who committed a major sin and dies without repentance, will suffer for eternity the torments of Hell, but having less punishment than the disbelievers.
4. Al-manzilah bayn al-manzilatayn - the position between the two extremes. Sinful Muslim cannot here on earth be classed either as 'believing' (mu‘min) or as 'disbelieving' (kaafir), but belongs to a separate category, that of the 'malefactor' (faasiq), and in the Hereafter he will be eternal in Hell, if they did not repent in this life.
5. Al-amr bil-ma'roof wan-nahy 'anil-munkar - commanding the good and prohibiting the evil. To intervene in public affairs to uphold the Law and oppose impiety. This includes permitting rebellion against unjust rulers as a way to prohibit evil.
And Allah knows best.
Published on Friday the 1st of Muharram, 1428/the 19th of January, 2007
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