It was fear of the public in the first instance...

It was fear of the public in the first instance, and follow- ing that, fear of both the public and the sultan, which shackled the hands of the Mu‘tazilah in front of the Traditionists; this did not shackle their hands before the Imamiyyah, and for this reason we do not find in the books of the Mu‘tazilah concerned with the Traditionists the offensive accusations, the continual biting criticism, and the bare-faced adversity which we find they have with respect to the Imamiyyah.

I think that what the Mu‘tazilah attributed to the Imamiyyah, which others adopted from them, they heard in the first instance from the Traditionists. Muqatil ibn Sulayman settled in Basrah towards the end of his life, and spread his views there,[^4] and so did his contemporary Hammad ibn Salamah al- Basri (88/707–167/784), the mufti and faqih of Basrah, and a famous Traditionist.

He was the one with whom are associated most of the hadith concerning the divine attributes which he used to demonstrate corporealism and anthropomorphism, and which it was said that his confederate ‘Abdu 'l-Karim ibn Abi 'l-‘Awja’, the well-known atheist, inserted in…