The Doctrine of the Muʿtazilah and Their Followers

A third faction of speculative theologians—the Muʿtazilah and those who sided with them—came close to the philosophers in this regard. They affirmed for God the divine names while denying the attributes those names necessarily imply. Thus, some of them treated al-ʿAlīm (the All-Knowing), al-Qadīr (the All-Powerful), al-Samīʿ (the All-Hearing), and al-Baṣīr (the All-Seeing) as nothing more than interchangeable proper nouns. Others went so far as to say, "He is Knowing without knowledge, Powerful without power, Hearing and Seeing without hearing or sight," affirming the name yet stripping away the attribute contained therein.

A full exposition of the flaws in their doctrine—and a demonstration of its internal contradiction by arguments that are both rationally decisive and textually sound—has been presented elsewhere and need not be repeated in these brief remarks.