The predicate qualities of the Mu'tazilites

Abstract

The increasing attempt of the Mu'tazilites to understand the nature of God - may God bless him and grant him peace - through understanding His attributes led them to become preoccupied with the descriptive attributes, which were proven through the news and which were mentioned in the Qur’anic text describing the Lord - may God bless him and grant him peace - with them. What was common about them was that they were of reason and wisdom and would not accept words except Whatever the mind believed, they had no choice but to refuse to accept the apparent meaning of the Qur’anic verses, intending thereby to distance God - may God bless him and grant him peace - from the simple understanding associated with anthropomorphism and simile. They showed diligence in interpretation, trying to find a middle ground between the apparent contradiction in what was stated in his book, and what His Noble Messenger approved of him in the Sunnah. And between the inner meaning that the minds crystallize about itself, which is completely contrary to the common people’s understanding of the apparent meaning of the text, and for this reason their interpretation of the predicative attributes was based on the arbitration of the mind.