Mutazili and Reason in Islam
A Srinivas Rao
Lazing as a couch potato would, remote in hand I accidentally chanced upon an interesting biopic titled “Destiny” by Yousseff Chahine (NDTV Lumiere) on the life of the last of the Islamic Philosophers Averroes (Inb Rushd) (CE 1126-1198). So impressive was his life and scholarship that I thought it a pity that we haven’t been educated as legatees of the whole of human history of thought. What is more impressive, less acknowledged and ironic is that the West received Greek-Hellenic thought thanks to the legacy of Islam who had nurtured the rationalist traditions of the Greeks until the Renaissance. It was due to the great Islamic scholars Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd) that the West re-discovered the legacy of Greek and Hellenic thought. What however is tragic is that Ibn Rushd and Ibn Sina were denounced by their own people for using frameworks that were non-Islamic especially Greek methods of logic to clarify ideas within Islam. What is ironic is that the West celebrates their achievements. Even today in the great painting called “The School of Athens” by Raphael, Averroes has a prominent place, So also in Giorgion's painting the Three Philosophers. What follows is the context of the times of Averroes (not his biography).
In the long and tortuous history of human rationality we unwittingly promote a myth that rationality is a precious legacy of the modern West. There is a corollary to it that the non-West was utterly devoid of rationalist traditions. The great contest in every society between faith and reason is an interesting tale to tell for ears that would care to hear. Even in Ancient India the tale unfolds as the contest between the Mimamasakaras of the Brahmin orthodoxy and the rationalist discourse of the Buddhists; but that’s a different story.
Soon after the death of prophet Muhammad (CE 632) the standard practice of succession among the Qurayish clans was to elect a prominent clansman to lead the tribe. Given the unity in command of both spiritual and political spheres (church and state) in early Islam these “Khalifat Rasul Allah” Commanders of the Faithful called Caliphs bore the burden of leadership. The first four Caliphs were tribal elders (Abu Bakr, Umar ibn al-Khattab, Uthman ibn Affan, and Ali ibn Abi Talib), soon succeeded by imperial dynasties the first of which was the Ummayad followed by the Abbasid, Fatimid and Ottoman. The first schism followed the civil war (First Fitna) and had emerged when an alternative view of dynastic succession (Ahl Al Byat - of the prophet’s family) was mooted by proposing the name of Ali as the first Caliph. Ali however had to cede his claim in deference to the first three elders. With the Word of God and the holy sword these Caliphs and their successors claimed vast swathes of land and populace. Soom all of Arabia, Persia, Turkey and North Africa up to Cordoba was under the sway of Islam attracting the eye of the Ummayad clansmen. The clansmen of the Ummayads (who also nurtured hostility to the prophet’s family clan of Hashimites) were wary that the political succession would go to Ali’s son Hussain ibn Ali. Muwaiyah I or the first Ummayad then governor of Syria staked claim to the Caliphate and ended up usurping authority from Ali using a series of questionable methods (like tipping spears with verses of the Quran to cause confusion) and bribing opponents and causing division within the community (Sunni and Shias). Muwaiyah appointed his own son Yazid I as his successor legitimating the dynastic succession he had refused Ali. Yazid conducted the unfortunate battle of Karbala
With the public sentiment against the Ummayads and the questionable methods deployed to further political ends the Ummayads championed a theory of predestination within Islam in order to legitimize their methods and ends. This doctrine was the jabira which held that man is not to be held accountable for his actions as they proceed directly from God. Contrasting this view were those of the qadira who maintained the freedom of the human will and a man’s personal responsibility for his own actions. Those who held the qadira view were put to death by the Ummayads. A section of these qadiras survived and probably wished to maintain a neutral ground about the political contest between the Ummayads and Ali. These political neutrals were called Mutazils (those who withdrew or stayed neutral) who soon would secure a sophisticated theological doctrine and would be enshrined in the history of rational thought as Mutazilites. The Mutazilite views gradually developed into metaphysics and were significantly influenced by Greek thought especially Aristotle. The Abbasid caliphate (CE 750-1258) which ushered in the Golden Age of Islam had supported the Mutazilite views to help usurp power from the Ummayads (only to later dump them when it was inconvenient). It is in this period that the great debates between the Mutazilites and the Al Asharites took place which finally sealed the door to all independent interpretation in Islam by the Ijtehad.
The Mutazilites held that the first obligation of a Muslim is to use his faculties of reason because it is through reason that and not necessity and sense perception that truth is established. It is through reason that one understands God and grounds his own morality. It does not follow that there is no role for revelation but that revelation must be complemented by reason. A person acts unwisely or immorally because of a need and deficiency material or psychological than because of evil. Evil follows from free will by acting in disharmony with reason. The Mutazilite views which seemed radical were that of stating that the Quran is created and not eternal and resorting to metaphorical and allegorical interpretations of Quranic verses than literalism that was followed by the clergy or Ulema. If the word of God and His Attributes are eternal then there is a problem of several co-eternals rather than a divine unity which would contradict the implicit monotheism that underscores Islam the Tawhid. Until then Muslim theologians had difficulty reconciling Divine Transcendence with Divine Attributes and could not do so without running the risk of anthropomorphism which was considered a sin of representing the ineffable. The most prominent of these Mutazilites were Abd Al Jabar al Qazi, apart from the famous Al Farabi, Ibn Sina, and Ibn Rushd. Also included maybe the father of the modern scientific method and Optics Al Hazen (Ibn Al Haytham CE 985-1040).
The contenders to the Mutazils were a group loosely called Al Asharites after Abu al Hasan al Ashari (CE 936) and changed the direction of Islam probably for a millennium. The Mutazils had accepted the Aristotelian view of causation/model of cause and effect that of a material and efficient cause. For example cotton and fire will burn in proximity i.e fire causes cotton to burn (efficient and material cause). The Asharites on the contrary maintained that such a cause and effect is only secondary causation and unless God intends even secondary causes don’t produce effect; i.e. God should intend the burning and mere juxtaposition of causes doesnt cause the burning. Asharites also maintained that morality can only be determined by revelation and cannot be deduced from propositions as the Greeks had maintained. They proposed what is called Taqlid which is imitation of the clergy or Ulema and not independent interpretation by intellectual reasoning or Ijtehad which the Mutazils considered as a sacred duty. On the other hand the Mutazils maintained that Taqlid should apply to not just imitating members of the clergy but also those who have other traditions of reason. The most famous of the Asharis was Al Gahzali (d 1111 CE) who penned the famous tract “The Incoherence of Philosophers” where he maintained the primacy of faith and the closure of the doors to independent reasoning and interpretation called Ijtehad. It was Averroes (d.1198 CE) who wrote its effective rebuttal called “The Incoherence of Incoherence”. But by then he became the harbinger of rationality within the dark and musty corners of the Christian Church of the Dark Ages than shed light on members of his own faith. Islam was now firmly committed to Asharite ideology and buried its last Philosopher (Falsafiya) with Ibn Rushd Averroes. Al Ghazali had his final triumph by proceeding to use Asharite theology to establish Sufism and its mystical and esoteric strain of Islam which while popular in South Asia stands discredited by much of the Sunni mainstream. It however remains in stark contrast to schools such as the Wahhabis.
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