Sacred Books Series Mu’tazilite Texts from the Core of Arabic Theology A Comparative Study

Description

Today, disseminating Mu’tazilite thought seems more of a necessity than a scholarly obligation, as it offers significant support for the advancement and humanity of Islam, which is often accused of backwardness, fanaticism, and terrorism. Their texts demonstrate numerous humane stances on religious tolerance at a time when the European Church was waging systematic wars of extermination against entire communities of those who disagreed with it. One of the most important contributions of the Mu’tazilites to Islamic thought was their attempt to liberate it from the dominance of traditionalist interpretations and their introduction of rationalism, which could have led to a tremendous civilizational renaissance—a model that Europe adopted during its Renaissance about a thousand years later.