Sources and names › Term › Mu'tazila
TermMu'tazila
Cited in 29 segments across 15 recordings · 2017 to 2023 · term/term:mutazila
Citing segments
Newest first. Each opens the whole segment, not a bare quote.
13 Feb 2023video
Apophatic definition: the early main body defined by what it was not
Early Muslims had no creed checklist: you belonged to the main body as long as you did not hold the positions of the known sects.
machine5 min 03 s5:46on YouTube
13 Feb 2023video
The created Quran controversy and the birth of a creedal checklist
In his research, orthodoxy began with the created-Quran controversy, which gave rise to the language of divine attributes and to growing creedal checklists.
machine8 min 21 s10:49on YouTube
15 Mar 2021video
Is Mufti Abu Layth a Mu'tazili?
Mufti Abu Layth is not a Mu'tazili because he is Sunni. The Mu'tazila were an early faction defined by their view of sinners, and calling them 'super rationalists' is later Sunni propaganda.
machine2 min 23 s0:01on YouTube
15 Mar 2021video
What actually separates Sunnis and Shia, and is mut'ah really a Shia thing?
The Sunni-Shia split is only about who has the right to rule, the Shia holding it stays in the Prophet's bloodline. Mut'ah and wiping the feet have nothing to do with being Shia; Sunnis used them as propaganda.
machine4 min 34 s2:24on YouTube
15 Mar 2021video
Does using reason in Islam make someone a Mu'tazili?
The Mu'tazila were defined by doctrines about sin and God's obligations, not by reason; the Sunni distrust of reason was a later reaction to losing debates. Calling someone Mu'tazili for using reason is a tactic to avoid debate.
machine7 min 07 s6:58on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Why isn't the Mufti a Mu'tazili?
Mufti Abu Layth says he is simply Sunni; sects are defined by core doctrines, the Shia by the sacred bloodline's right to rule, and mut'ah was pinned on them as propaganda.
machine6 min 48 s44:58on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Were the Mu'tazila really defined by their use of reason?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Mu'tazila were defined by doctrines like a sinner leaving Islam and God being duty-bound, not by reason; the Sunni rejection of reason came later as a reaction.
machine7 min 02 s51:46on YouTube
16 Feb 2021Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
Did Imam Ahmad really refuse to say the Quran is created?
Mufti Abu Layth says later Hanbalis made Imam Ahmad a hero of the Mihna, though he likely said the Quran was created to save himself; Ash'ari books also call the worded Quran created.
machine8 min 12 s1:02:31on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Why don't madrasas teach the Islamic philosophers and the Mu'tazila?
The guest says traditionalists value only a narrow sliver of Islam's diverse intellectual heritage, ignoring the philosophers, the early Qadariyya and Mu'tazila, Shia thinkers and modernists, and that he found answers on religion and science in Ibn Rushd.
machine3 min 58 s15:30on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Does traditional orthodoxy lead to extremism?
The guest says today's orthodoxy promotes reactionary conservatism that can mutate into groups like the Taliban and ISIS, and proposes reviving the philosophers, Mu'tazila and modernists; Mufti Abu Layth agrees some non-violent groups create a springboard for extremism.
machine3 min 11 s19:28on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
If blind following in faith is forbidden, why must I accept a school's creed without question?
Mufti Abu Layth finds it paradoxical that schools forbid blind following in faith but demand blind acceptance of their creeds; the guest says traditionalists use reason only to reach revelation and then discard it, whereas reason must stay in continuous use.
machine7 min 03 s24:25on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Isn't reason subjective, and is something good only because God commands it?
The guest says the Ash'ari voluntarist view of ethics is the real relativism and argues for universal moral values grounded in God's nature; Mufti Abu Layth calls the Ash'ari denial of inherent good and bad nonsense.
machine4 min 16 s29:42on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
If we all recognise harm, why do people still do terrible things?
Mufti Abu Layth says empathy can be overridden by instincts such as power, and that a shared consciousness shapes the moral feel of an age; he notes the Quran commands justice without defining it, which the guest links to the Mu'tazila.
machine4 min 26 s53:58on YouTube
11 Dec 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Are the stories in the Quran meant to be literal history?
The guest argues, following Khalafallah and Ibn Rushd, that the Quran's stories are sacred literature and legend, using symbol and parable for theological ends rather than reporting literal history.
machine6 min 58 s1:02:23on YouTube
21 Nov 2020video
Is the jinn exorcism and ruqya industry a fraud?
The ruqya industry is largely a fraud drenched in abuse; the Mu'tazila, who rejected possession, were never afflicted, and al-Jahiz already recorded a practitioner using a possession claim to explain away a lost virginity.
machine6 min 37 s43:12on YouTube
22 Sep 2020Monday Nights with Mufti Abu Layth
What do you think of the Mu'tazila?
Mufti Abu Layth says the Mu'tazila were an extinct, extremist yet rationalist sect, and mocks calling anyone who uses reason a Mu'tazili.
machine6 min 47 s2:06:56on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
Is al-Zamakhshari's tafsir al-Kashshaf worth reading?
Mufti Abu Layth praises al-Kashshaf as linguistically overwhelming and al-Zamakhshari as a legend, while noting the Mu'tazili oddities in it; the Mu'tazila were great scholars, often over-demonised.
machine4 min 24 s45:21on YouTube
14 Jul 2020live stream
What was al-Ash'ari's argument against the Mu'tazila about God always doing what is best?
Mufti Abu Layth tells the debate attributed to al-Ash'ari, in which a disbeliever asks why he was not allowed to die as a child, and says this is where the Mu'tazili view of a God bound to do the best crumbles.
machine2 min 34 s49:45on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the Ash'ari view of God's speech really different from the Mu'tazili view?
The guest says the Ash'aris borrowed heavily from the Mu'tazila but differ on whether speech is sounds and letters or meaning; Mufti Abu Layth says sectarian politics produced ambiguous creeds.
machine4 min 07 s46:24on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
How did Muslim theologians reconcile God being one with his many names and attributes?
The guest and host trace how the Mu'tazila, Hanbalis and Ash'aris reconciled God's oneness with his many names and attributes.
machine10 min 42 s1:10:57on YouTube
3 Jul 2020MindTrap with Mufti Abu Layth
Is the Quran eternal, or was it created?
The guest says the Arabic Quran in the tablet is, on most views, pre-existent but created; only God's languageless speech is eternal for Ash'aris and Maturidis.
machine1 min 47 s1:36:51on YouTube
3 Nov 2019Responding to Refutations
What did Yasir Qadhi say about Mufti Abu Layth on the Mad Mamluks podcast?
Mufti Abu Layth says Qadhi, trying to reassert his traditional credentials on a podcast, said people like Mufti should declare themselves Mu'tazila rather than Sunni.
machine5 min 42 s16:47on YouTube
3 Nov 2019Responding to Refutations
Who were the Mu'tazila and what did they believe?
The Mu'tazila were an extinct early sect who held that a sinning Muslim is neither believer nor kafir; Mufti Abu Layth says later theologians' defensive reaction left some Muslims thinking the intellect is bad, which he calls the dumbest idea.
machine2 min 34 s25:33on YouTube
10 May 2018Ponderings on the Holy Quran
Is the chain of the apostasy hadith through Anas reliable?
The alternative chain of the apostasy hadith through Anas is also weak: it includes a narrator with Mu'tazili tendencies and Qatada, who is known for tadlis, and the report clashes with reason, the Quran and the Prophet's life.
machine3 min 58 s35:16on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Is jinn possession just a difference of opinion among scholars?
Mufti Abu Layth refuses to treat it that way: although scholars from Fakhr al-Din al-Razi to Shaltut, Ibn Ashur and al-Shawkani rejected possession while Ibn Taymiyya affirmed it, this is not a harmless fiqh difference like raising the hands in prayer, because the belief drives abuse and exploitation and brings ridicule on Islam.
machine2 min 07 s1:05:31on YouTube
15 Apr 2018Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why great scholars accepted it: sectarian turf war with the Mu'tazila
Mufti Abu Layth argues that belief in magic, even on the Prophet, hardened as a sectarian reaction against the Mu'tazila, just as other issues hardened against Salafis or Shia.
machine10 min 12 s30:12on YouTube
9 Apr 2018The Voice of Reason in Islam
Why did Muslims become hostile to reason?
Mufti Abu Layth traces Muslim hostility to reason to the centuries-long sectarian conflict with the Mu'tazila, in which the mainstream answered the Mu'tazila's use of reason by disparaging reason itself and defending absurd narrations.
machine6 min 35 s49:33on YouTube
15 Mar 2018Responding to Refutations
Is someone who denies a line of al-Tahawi's creed a kafir?
No: Mufti Abu Layth says this makes al-Tahawi rather than the Quran the standard, that Elmasry himself departs from al-Tahawi on several points, that Ash'ari creed does not make takfir of the people of the qibla, and that al-Tahawi wrote 250 years after the Prophet and is not an Ash'ari authority.
machine2 min 37 s2:36on YouTube
20 Sep 2017Debunking Myths On: Jinns, Magic, the Evil Eye, and Superstitions
Why not treat jinn possession as just a difference of opinion among scholars?
Because it is not a harmless difference like raising the hands in prayer: belief in possession underwrites mass exploitation, a multi-million pound industry and ridicule of Islam and its Prophet. Al-Razi, al-Maraghi, Ibn Ashur and al-Shawkani are among those who denied it, and the abuse must end.
machine1 min 55 s1:56:14on YouTube