The Mu`tazilite conception of al-Tawhid : a critical re-evaluation and contemporary relevance

Abstract

This thesis examines the significance of the Mu'tazilite conception of al-tawhid. It aims at exposing the efforts of the exponents of the Mu'tazilite school in defending the purity of the Islamic faith and to prevent it from being influenced by foreign elements which can affect its purity and strike at the very root of the monotheistic faith of Islam. Based on the historical analysis from available literatures, the study attempts to interpret and reconstruct the available information to look at the whole issue. Analysis of the Mu'tazilite concept of al-tawhid is based mainly on the exposition of the theory by leading Mu'tazilite scholars. This thesis also analyzes the place of the Mu'tazilite views and method in later theological schools. Finally, it exposes the relevance of the spirit of Mu'tazilism to the so-called Neo-Mu'tazilite modernists with special reference to Prof. Harun Nasution. This study finds that the Mu'tazilite school played a positive role in the development of Islamic thought and the establishment of the true philosophy of religion. The development of the school can be divided into two: first, when the school consisted of heterogeneous theologians with various directions of thought, then, consisting of uniform ideas which provided the school with a recognized doctrinal frame and united the ideas into an amalgamation as what has been found in 'Abd al-Jabbar's doctrines. This study also finds that it is unfortunate that the Mu'tazilites received two main negative representations: the classical unfavourable image as displayed by books on sects and doctrines mainly from Ash'arite writers as people who utilized excessive human reasoning in religious problems which was a continuation of hostility as a result of Mu'tazilite harsh enforcement of their doctrines through involvement in politics. The modern image is created by the orientalists who were influenced by the European philosophy of Enlightenment and Rationalism at the end of the 19th and early 20th century. The wrong usage of Western terms has damaged the image of the Mu'tazilites who had an undeniable role in defending Islam. The contemporary modern Muslim figure Harun Nasution, who claimed himself to be a Neo-Mu'tazilite, leaned more towards Western Liberalism than to the spirit of classical Mu'tazilism. Indeed, this is another blow to the image of the Mu'tazilites.