Muʿtazila

Mu'tazila (Arabic: المعتزلة‎ al-muʿtazilah) is a school of Islamic theology based on reason and rational thought that flourished in the cities of Basra and Baghdad, both in present-day Iraq, during the 8th–10th centuries. The adherents of the Mu`tazili school—known in the English language as "Mu`tazilites"—are best known for their denying the status of the Qur'an as uncreated and co-eternal with God, asserting that if the Quran is God's word, logically God "must have preceded his own speech".

The philosophical speculation of the Mu'tazilites centered around the concepts of divine justice and divine unity. The school worked to resolve the theological "problem of evil", i.e. how to reconcile the justice of an all-powerful God with the reality of evil in the world. It believed that since God is Just and Wise, He cannot command what is contrary to reason or act with disregard for the welfare of His creatures.

Mu`tazilites believed that good and evil were not determined by revealed scripture or interpretation of scripture, but rational categories that could be "established through unaided reason; because knowledge was derived from reason, reason was the "final arbiter" in distinguishing right from wrong. The Mu`tazili school of Kalam posited that the injunctions of God are accessible to rational thought and inquiry, and that it is reason, not "sacred precedent", that is an effective means of determining what is just, and obligatory in religion.