ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books An Introduction To 'ilm Al-kalam ASHA'IRAH: From the preceding lecture it became clear that the ideas and notions which led to the emergence of the Mu'tazilite school took birth during the latter half of the first century of Hijrah. The approach of the Mu'tazilah , in fact, consisted of the use of a kind of logical and rational method for understanding the basic doctrines of the Islamic faith.

Obviously, the first condition for such an approach is belief in the freedom, independence, and validity of reason. It is also evident that the common people at large are not used to ratiocination and intellectual analysis, and always tend to equate "religiosity" with "credulity" and intellectual submission to the apparent meanings of the Qur'anic verses and in particular of the a hadith .

They tend to consider every attempt at independent and original interpretation as a kind of rebellion against religion, specially if the dominant politics deem it in their interests to support this attitude, and more specially if some religious scholars propagate such an outlook, and particularly so when such scholars really believe in their literalist outlook and are inflexible and fanatical in practice.

The attacks of the Akhbaris on the Usuliyyun and the mujtahidun, and the attacks of some fuqaha' and muhaddithun against philosophers in the Islamic world had their roots in such an approach.[^13] The Mu'tazilah had a deep-rooted interest in understanding Islam and its propagation and defence against the atheists, the Jews, the Christians, the Magians, the Sabaeans, the Manichaeans, and others. They even trained missionaries and dispatched them to various regions.

Nevertheless, their existence was threatened by the literalists, who called themselves "Ahl al- Hadith " or "Ahl al- Sunnah ." They were ultimately stabbed in the back, weakened and gradually became extinct. Despite it all, in the beginning, that is until the end of the 3rd/9th century and the beginning of the 4th/l0th, there existed no rival school of kalam - as was later to emerge - that could challenge the Mu'tazilah .

All opposition occurred under the claim that the views of the Mu'tazilah were against the externals of the hadith and the Sunnah . The leaders of the Ahl al- Hadith , such as Malik ibn Anas and Ahmad ibn Hanbal, basically considered any debate, inquiry or argument connected with the matters of faith as unlawful( haram ) .