(1) The Mu‘tazilah: a school of speculative theology that emerged in the early second century AH and reached its prominence during the early Abbasid period. Its name derives from the withdrawal of its leader, Wāsil ibn ‘Atā’, from the study circle of al-Hasan al-Basrī because Wāsil held that a person who commits a major sin is neither an unbeliever nor a believer, but occupies an intermediate position between the two. When Wāsil withdrew from al-Hasan’s circle, ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd joined him, and their supporters followed them; they were therefore called Mu‘tazilah (“those who withdraw”). This sect places excessive reliance on reason and gives it precedence over transmitted religious sources.