any human being. I have examined his story in detail in my book Declaring the Jahmiyyah Unbelievers.

As for ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd—namely, ‘Amr ibn ‘Ubayd ibn Kaysān ibn Bāb, a Basran client of Banū Tamīm, who died in 143 AH on the road to Mecca—he was the first to lay out its foundations and became its leader. He formulated arguments for it, established it as a guiding authority, called people to it and directed them towards it, until it became a doctrine to be followed. He was the leading figure in speculative theology, a propagator of the earliest heresy, and the head of the Mu‘tazilah. They were given this name because he withdrew from the study circle of al-Hasan