Muhammad.Kamal Mutazilah The rise of Islamic Rationalism EN

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The Mu'tazilah (also spelled Mu'tazilite) is a major rationalist school of Islamic theology (*Kalam*) that flourished in the cultural capitals of Basra and Baghdad during the Islamic Golden Age, particularly from the 8th to the 10th centuries. Founded by Wasil ibn Ata in the early Umayyad period, the school achieved formal state patronage under several Abbasid caliphs, most notably al-Ma'mun. Known as the rationalists of early Islam, the Mu'tazilites sought to defend Islamic creeds against external philosophical challenges by harmonizing divine revelation with Greek dialectical logic and rigorous philosophical reason. The school's entire theological framework is anchored on five fundamental pillars (*Usul al-Khamsa*): Divine Unity (*Tawheed*), Divine Justice (*Adl*), the Promise and the Threat, the Intermediate Position, and Enjoining Good and Forbidding Evil. Based on their radical stance on monotheism, they argued that God is entirely free from anthropomorphic traits and famously declared that the Quran is the "created" word of God rather than co-eternal with Him. They also emphasized free will, asserting that human reason is fully capable of discerning moral good and evil independent of revelation. Although their political influence waned rapidly after the *Mihna* (Inquisition) and the rise of the Ash'arite and Maturidite schools, Mu'tazilite rationalism left an indelible mark on Islamic philosophy, deeply influencing subsequent Shia (especially Zaydi and Twelver) theological paradigms and contemporary Islamic modernism.

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