Abstract
Wāṣil b.’Aṭā (d.l31AH/748CE), an associate of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d.H0AH/728CE), is traditionally considered, along with ‘Amr b. ‘Ubayd (d.l44AH/761CE), the originator of Mutazilism. This account of the beginnings of early Mu’tazilism differs from that of Watt (d.2006) who argued that the main founders of the ‘Mu’tazilite school of thought were four individuals: Mu’ammar (d.215AH/830CE), Ibrahīm Al-Naẓẓām (d.221AH/836CE), and Abū l-Hudhayl (d.226AH/84lCE) in Baṣra, and Bishr al-Mu’tamir (d.210AH/825CE) in Baghdad.1 The accounts of the beginnings of the Mu’tazilite School differ and there are numerous versions of it as given by Al-Shahrastānī (d.548AH/1153CE) in his al-Milāl wa al-Nihāl. Sometimes Amr b. ‘Ubayd is mentioned in place of Wāṣil and the circle from which he withdrew was not of al-Ḥasan but Qatā da (d.117AH/735CE) and, for these reasons, Watt rejects this incident which marks the beginnings of this school.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
William Mongomery Watt, Islamic Philosophy & Theology (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997).
Muhammad b. Abd al-Karim Al-Shahrastani, Al-Milal wa al-Nihal (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyya, 2007), 38;
Abū al-Muin al-Nasafi, Tabsirat al-Adilhth fi usui ai-Din, edited by Huseyin Atay (Ankara: Diyanat Isleri Baskanligi, 1993) 24;
Huseyin Hansu, “Notes on the Term Mutawatir and Its Reception in Hadith Criticism,” Islamic Law and Society, 16 (2009): 385.
Benyamin Abrahamov, Islamic Theology: Tradionalism and Rationalism (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998), 33.
C. Richard Martin, R. Woodward and D. S. Atmaja, Defenders of Reason in Islam: Mu’tazilism from Medieval school to Modern Symbol (Oxford: Oneworld, 1997), 385.
George E Hourani, Islamic Rationalism (Clarendon Press Oxford, 1971), 137.
Jonathan Brown, “How Do We Know Hadith Critics Did Matn Criticism,” in The Hadith: Critical Concepts in Islamic Studies, edited by Shah, Vol. 3 (Routledge, 2010), 190–191.
Abū al-Husayn al-Basri, Al-Mu’tamad fi Usui al-fiqh, Vol. 2 (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyya, 2010), 80;
Guatier H. A. Juynboll, “(Re) Appraisal of Some Technical Terms in Hadith Sciences,” Islamic Law & Society, 8(3) (2001): 303–349.
Racha El-Omari, “Accommodation and Resistance: Classical Mu’tazilites on Hadīth,” Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 71(2) (2012): 231–256.
Abu Mansur ‘Abd al-Qahir b. Tahir al-Bagdadi, Al-Farq bayn al-firaq (Beirut, Al-Maktaba al-’Asriyya, 1995), 114.
Josep Van Ess, “L’autorite de la tradition prophetique dans la theologie mu’tazilite,” in la notion d’autorite au moyen Age: Islam, Byzance, Occident, edited by George Makdisi et al. (Paris: Presses Iniversitaires de France, c. 1982), 216–217.
‘Abd Allah b. Muslim b. Qutayba, Ta’wil Mukhtalif al-Hadith (Beirut: Al-Maktaba al-Islami, 2006), 211;
Gerard Lecomte, Le Traite des divergences du Hadit d’Ibn Qutayba (Institute Francais De Demas, 1962), 25–26.
Muhammad b. Ismail al-Bukhari, al fami al Sahih (Riyadh: Darus Salam, 1998) Hadith no. 4537, 248.
Joseph Lowry, “The Legal Hermeneutics of al-Shāfi’ī and Ibn Qutayba: A Reconsideration,” Islamic Law and Society, 11(1) (2004) 1–41.
Cf: Josep Van Ess, The Flowering of Muslim Theology (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2006), 169–171.
Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad (Beirut, Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyya, 2011), 353.
Muhammad b. Ahmad Al-Dhahabi, Tadhkirat al-Huffaz (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyya, 1998), 213.
Al-Hazimi, Shurut al-A’immat al-Khamsa (Beirut: Dar al-Kutub al-’Ilmiyya, 1984), 61.
Jonathan Brown, The Canonization of Al-Bukhari & Muslim:The Formation and Function of the Sunni Hadith Canon (Leiden: Brill, 2007), 178.
Regarding the reception of Al-Basri’s Al-Mu’tamad fi Usul al-fiqh see further Sabine Schmidtke and Hasan Ansari, “The Mu’tazili and Zaydī Reception of Abū l-Husayn al-Basrī’s Kitāb al-Mu’tamad fī Usūl al-Fiqh,” Islamic Law and Society, 20(1–2) (2013): 90–109.
Joseph Van Ess, The Flowering of Muslim Theology, trans. Jane Marie Todd (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2006), 158.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 2015 Usman Ghani
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ghani, U. (2015). The Concept of sunna in Mu‘tazilite Thought. In: Duderija, A. (eds) The Sunna and its Status in Islamic Law. Palgrave Series in Islamic Theology, Law, and History. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137369925_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137369925_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-57831-3
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-36992-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Religion & Philosophy CollectionPhilosophy and Religion (R0)