{"id":16257,"date":"2022-06-09T04:38:15","date_gmt":"2022-06-09T03:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/?p=16257"},"modified":"2022-06-09T04:38:15","modified_gmt":"2022-06-09T03:38:15","slug":"comparing-imamiyya-mutazila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/16257\/comparing-imamiyya-mutazila\/","title":{"rendered":"Comparing Imamiyya to Mutazila"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two most well-known theological sects within Sunnism are the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Asha\u2019ira<\/em>. However, traditionalists (Alh Al-Hadith<\/em>) and the\u00a0Ashaira<\/em>\u00a0do not consider the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0within the fold of Sunnism. However, insofar as the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0do not believe in the divine selection of the Imam, we regard this school as nominally Sunni.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0as a theological school was established in 105\/723 by Wasil ibn Ata. He had previously been a follower of the school of Hasan Al-Basri, but he broke away and began attracting followers of his own. Wasil\u2019s followers, due to their remarkable efforts against foreign heretical doctrines, began to attract attention. During the reign of the Abbasid Caliph, Mutawakkil (d. 240\/861), the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0lost its favoured position. The last prominent and distinguished figure of this school was Shaykh Mahmud Zamaskhari (d. 538\/1144) whose\u00a0Tafsir Al-Kashshaf<\/em>\u00a0revived interest in their doctrines.<\/p>\n

After the death of its main figures, the teachings of the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0were preserved in the\u00a0Zaydi\u00a0<\/em>school of Shiism.\u00a0<\/em>The\u00a0Zaydiyya<\/em>\u00a0of Yemen and other regions adopted the principles of this school, aside from its rejection of Ali\u2019s successorship to the Prophet. As well as the\u00a0Zaydiyya<\/em>, the\u00a0Maturidiyya\u00a0<\/em>in the East adopted many Mutazilite doctrines. The\u00a0Maturidiyya<\/em>\u00a0were intellectually closer to the rationalists than the traditionalists. However, from another angle, the\u00a0Maturidiyya<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0Asha\u02bfira<\/em>\u00a0both belonged to Sunnism while being opposed to the traditionalist theologians.<\/p>\n

Some of the doctrines of\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>, especially the impossibility of visibly seeing God in the Hereafter, have survived in the Ibadiyya<\/em>\u00a0sect. (For more on them, see the\u00a03rd vol. of this series<\/a>) Having briefly outlined the key differences between the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>, we shall leave its full discussion for the future.<\/p>\n

Intercession<\/h4>\n

Islamic scholars unanimously believe that\u00a0shafaa\u00a0<\/em>(intercession) is an authentic teaching of Islam, and that a sinner will be spared punishment due to the successful intercession of an intercessor. From this respect, intercession is only for those who have committed major sins; the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Asha\u2019ira<\/em>\u00a0agree on this point. However, the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0school holds that intercession is also available for the righteous, in the sense of elevating them to higher statuses in the Hereafter.<\/p>\n

Punishment of a major sinner<\/h4>\n

According to the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Asha\u2019ira<\/em>, a person whose faith and belief in God is theoretically sound but commits a major sin out of his own desire is still a believer, but also a sinner (Fasiq<\/em>). From the point of view of the\u00a0Khawarij<\/em>, he has become an unbeliever, while according to the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>, he is neither a disbeliever nor a believer, but in an intermediate position.<\/p>\n

Heaven and Hell<\/h4>\n

The\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Ash\u0101\u02bfira<\/em>\u00a0believe that Heaven and Hell have been created and exist now and that God is aware of their condition. However, the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0believe that they are not yet created.<\/p>\n

Enjoining good and forbidding evil<\/h4>\n

The majority of the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0and all the\u00a0Ash\u0101\u02bfira<\/em>\u00a0believe that enjoining good and forbidding evil is a religious rather than a rational obligation; if no proof in justification of this principle has been explicitly provided, that is only because it is not necessary to do so. This is because some of the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0and a great number of the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0believe that enjoining good and forbidding evil is a rational duty, and it is our faculty of reason which urges us to it.<\/p>\n

How good deeds are invalidated by bad ones<\/h4>\n

The\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Ash\u0101\u02bfira<\/em>\u00a0believe that whatever a person does has its own value independent of other actions; therefore evil deeds cannot invalidate good ones and render them worthless. In other words, good deeds are only eliminated if the committed sin is polytheism (shirk<\/em>) or disbelief (Kufr<\/em>).<\/em>\u00a0In this case, all the previous good deeds to turn to nothing. However, for the\u00a0Mu\u02bftazila<\/em>\u00a0the sphere of invalidation (Ihbat<\/em>) is wider. They believe that a person who has spent his or her whole life worshipping and obeying God, by virtue of a single lie could become like one who has not worshipped God at all, even for one moment.<\/p>\n

The relationship between religion and reason<\/h4>\n

The\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0consider reason to be a tool to infer and extract secondary principles, without exaggerating its role or position. The\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>, on the other hand, use reason to reinterpret those external acts of the\u00a0Sharia<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Sunna<\/em>\u00a0which do not conform to their own principles, such as the notion of intercession, which they interpret as a means to elevation in the Hereafter.<\/p>\n

Repentance<\/h4>\n

The\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Ash\u0101\u02bfira<\/em>\u00a0hold that God\u2019s acceptance of repentance is a form of divine grace, as if it were not for God\u2019s kindness, there could be no forgiveness of sins. On the other hand, the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0believe that the promise of forgiveness from one\u2019s sins is an essential rational precondition for repentance and turning away from sin.<\/p>\n

The Prophets and Angels<\/h4>\n

The\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0believe that the Prophets are superior to the angels but the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0believe the contrary.<\/p>\n

Determinism versus free will<\/h4>\n

The\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0maintain that the human being is not subject to predestination and that whatever he does is the result of his own free choice. However, this does not mean that man is completely autonomous or that his actions exist independently of God either. However, the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0believe man is autonomous and his actions are independent.<\/p>\n

Mankind\u2019s need for revelation<\/h4>\n

The\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0say that the human being, in order to fulfil their moral duties, is in need of divine guidance in the form of prophets, without whom he would go astray. On the other hand the\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0claim that human reason is capable of identifying a person\u2019s moral duties independent of external guidance.<\/p>\n

These are the differences between the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Mutazila<\/em>\u00a0schools; it is to be noted that many of the\u00a0Ashaira<\/em>\u00a0agree with the\u00a0Imamiyya<\/em>\u00a0on the aforementioned mentioned principles. Furthermore, insofar as these principles are mostly theological rather than doctrinal, it is not necessary for individual Muslims to affirm every last detail of them, and disagreements on these issues should not be a source of strife among the Muslims.<\/p>\n

Source:shafaqna<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two most well-known theological sects within Sunnism are the\u00a0Mutazila\u00a0and\u00a0Asha\u2019ira. However, traditionalists (Alh Al-Hadith) and the\u00a0Ashaira\u00a0do not consider the\u00a0Mutazila\u00a0within the fold of Sunnism. However, insofar as the\u00a0Mutazila\u00a0do not believe in the divine selection of the Imam, we regard this school as nominally Sunni. The\u00a0Mutazila\u00a0as a theological school was established in 105\/723 by Wasil ibn Ata. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":16258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7775],"tags":[13763,7573,9546,19695],"class_list":["post-16257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamic-scholastic-theology","tag-ahl-al-bayt-a-s","tag-imam-ali","tag-islam","tag-prophet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shiastudies.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}