@firedragon - I'd appreciate your insights on this piece. The piece itself appears to reveal more aspects to Islam than I had known about.
An Early Islamic Debate on Faith and Reason Is Worth Examining
There is, however, something ironic about the times of the salaf that both their purported revivalists as well as many other contemporary Muslims seem to ignore: It was a time of richer diversity within Islam. For a start, there were more schools of jurisprudence than those that are well-known today — initiated by such scholars as al-Awzai (d. 774), al-Thawri (d. 778) and al-Zahiri (d. 883), all of which either died out naturally or merged with other schools. Others, such as the school initiated by Ibn Karram (d. 868), ended up on the losing side in violent inter-sectarian struggles. Moreover, both Sunni and Shiite traditions were less strictly defined, with more theological fluidity between them and what they would later reject as “heresies.”
This is most evident with regard to the Mutazila, the first school to develop “kalam” (Islamic theology). Today, most Sunni sources count this among the early “heresies” within the faith, rejected by the followers of their one and only true path. Little do they realize that many of the earliest Hanafis — the largest Sunni school to date — were in fact Mutazilites, and the latter’s thinking left important traces on mainstream Sunni thought, such as an uneasiness with anthropomorphism (the attribution of human traits) with respect to God.
The key aspect of Mutazila thought is well-known, though, both among Muslims and in Western sources: their “rationalism.” But there are misunderstandings about what this means. Conservative Sunni Muslims, in particular, are often scandalized by the idea that fallible human reason could be valued much beside infallible divine revelation: “as if revelation is from God,” as the Turkish theologian Hüseyin Kansu puts it, “and reason is from the infidels.”
For the Mutazila, however, both revelation and reason were from God — as independent paths to the same ethical truths. And the exact meaning of this duality needs to be better grasped, for it is relevant to some of the heated debates about religion, law and ethics that take place in the Muslim world today.
...
This effort for a rationally consistent “dawa” (call) explains all the doctrines of the Mutazila that more dogmatic Muslims found unnecessarily complicated, if not outrageously heretical.
For example, the Mutazila opposed the popular belief in predestination, or “qadar,” instead arguing that God had given human beings complete freedom and power in their acts. For otherwise, they realized, they could not defend God’s justice — a pivotal principle in their system — in rewarding or punishing people for their deeds. (They had also seen how the doctrine of predestination was used by the despotic rulers of the Umayyad dynasty, which dominated the Islamic Empire from 661 to 750, to instill unquestioning obedience to themselves.)
Another doctrine of the Mutazila which many Muslims have found baffling was that the Quran was God’s “created” word — instead of preexisting with God Himself since eternity. The reason was their realization that an “uncreated Quran” would vindicate the Christian doctrine of “uncreated Christ” — as the Christian theologian John of Damascus (d. 749) had intelligently argued. (Because Christ, too, was “word of God,” according to none other than the Quran.)
In other words, by defining the Quran as “created,” the Mutazila were not devaluing the Quran. Instead, they were trying to guard the core teaching of the Quran, which is God’s absolute unity.
...
So, apparently, the Mutazilites were not wrong in everything. This does not mean they were right in everything, either. But they represented an important intellectual effort in early Islam in reconciling Islamic faith and law with universal human reason and ethics. At a time when such a reconciliation is even more urgently needed, some of their ideas may be worth reconsidering.
...
An Early Islamic Debate on Faith and Reason Is Worth Examining
There is, however, something ironic about the times of the salaf that both their purported revivalists as well as many other contemporary Muslims seem to ignore: It was a time of richer diversity within Islam. For a start, there were more schools of jurisprudence than those that are well-known today — initiated by such scholars as al-Awzai (d. 774), al-Thawri (d. 778) and al-Zahiri (d. 883), all of which either died out naturally or merged with other schools. Others, such as the school initiated by Ibn Karram (d. 868), ended up on the losing side in violent inter-sectarian struggles. Moreover, both Sunni and Shiite traditions were less strictly defined, with more theological fluidity between them and what they would later reject as “heresies.”
This is most evident with regard to the Mutazila, the first school to develop “kalam” (Islamic theology). Today, most Sunni sources count this among the early “heresies” within the faith, rejected by the followers of their one and only true path. Little do they realize that many of the earliest Hanafis — the largest Sunni school to date — were in fact Mutazilites, and the latter’s thinking left important traces on mainstream Sunni thought, such as an uneasiness with anthropomorphism (the attribution of human traits) with respect to God.
The key aspect of Mutazila thought is well-known, though, both among Muslims and in Western sources: their “rationalism.” But there are misunderstandings about what this means. Conservative Sunni Muslims, in particular, are often scandalized by the idea that fallible human reason could be valued much beside infallible divine revelation: “as if revelation is from God,” as the Turkish theologian Hüseyin Kansu puts it, “and reason is from the infidels.”
For the Mutazila, however, both revelation and reason were from God — as independent paths to the same ethical truths. And the exact meaning of this duality needs to be better grasped, for it is relevant to some of the heated debates about religion, law and ethics that take place in the Muslim world today.
...
This effort for a rationally consistent “dawa” (call) explains all the doctrines of the Mutazila that more dogmatic Muslims found unnecessarily complicated, if not outrageously heretical.
For example, the Mutazila opposed the popular belief in predestination, or “qadar,” instead arguing that God had given human beings complete freedom and power in their acts. For otherwise, they realized, they could not defend God’s justice — a pivotal principle in their system — in rewarding or punishing people for their deeds. (They had also seen how the doctrine of predestination was used by the despotic rulers of the Umayyad dynasty, which dominated the Islamic Empire from 661 to 750, to instill unquestioning obedience to themselves.)
Another doctrine of the Mutazila which many Muslims have found baffling was that the Quran was God’s “created” word — instead of preexisting with God Himself since eternity. The reason was their realization that an “uncreated Quran” would vindicate the Christian doctrine of “uncreated Christ” — as the Christian theologian John of Damascus (d. 749) had intelligently argued. (Because Christ, too, was “word of God,” according to none other than the Quran.)
In other words, by defining the Quran as “created,” the Mutazila were not devaluing the Quran. Instead, they were trying to guard the core teaching of the Quran, which is God’s absolute unity.
...
So, apparently, the Mutazilites were not wrong in everything. This does not mean they were right in everything, either. But they represented an important intellectual effort in early Islam in reconciling Islamic faith and law with universal human reason and ethics. At a time when such a reconciliation is even more urgently needed, some of their ideas may be worth reconsidering.
...