Iqbals The Development of Metaphysics in Persia [Electronic resources] نسخه متنی

40properly to reflect on
their religion, and the Mu`tazil thinkers (1), gradually drifted into
metaphysics with which alone we are concerned here. It is not our object to
trace the history of the Mu`tazila Kalam; for present purposes it will be
sufficient if we briefly reveal the metaphysical implications of the Mu`tazila
view of Islam. The conception of God, and the theory of matter, therefore, are
the only aspects of Rationalism which we propose to discuss here.

His conception of the unity of God at which the Mu`tazila eventually
arrived by a subtle dialectic is one of the fundamental points in which he
differs, from the Orthodox Muhammaden . God's attributes according to his view,
cannot be said to inhere in Him; they form the very essence of His nature. The
Mu`tazila, therefore, denies the separate reality of divine attributes, and
declares their absolute identity with the abstract divine Principle. "God",
says.

1.The Mu`tazilas belonged to various nationalities, and
many of them were Persians either by
descent or domicile. Wasil Ibn `Ata - the reported founder of the sect - was a
Persian (Browne, Lit. His., Vol. 1, p. 281). Von Kremer, however, traces their
origin to the theological controversies of the Umayyad period. Mu`tazilaism was
not an essentially Persian movement; but it is true, as Prof. Browne observes
(Lit. His., Vol, 1, p. 283) that Shiite and Qadari tenets, indeed, often went
together, and the Shiite doctrine current in Persia at the present day is in
many respects Mu`tazilite, while Hasan Al-Ashari, the great opponent of the
Mutazilite, is by the Shi'ites held in horror. It may also be added that some of
the greater representatives of the Mu`tazila opinion were abi'as by religion,
e.g. Abu'l-Hudhail (Al-Mu`tazila, ed. by T. W. Arnold, p. 28'. On the other band
many of the followers of Al-Ash`ari were Persians (See extracts from Ibn `Asakir
ed. Mehren), so that it does not seem to be quite justifiable to describe the
Asharite mode of thought as a purely Semitic movement.