The doctrines of Divine Unity and Divine Justice are more central to the Mu’tazilites than the rest of them; hence they preferred the ascription Ahlu `t-Tawhīd wa `l-Adl (the people of unity and justice) for themselves’. Specifically, they raised the following four issues, each of which has important bearing on the problem of divine unity:
(a) Relation of the attributes of God with His Essence.
(b) Created-ness or Uncreated-ness of the Holy Qur’ān.
(c) Possibility of Vision of God (the Beatific Vision)
(d) Interpretation of the anthropomorphic verses of the Qur’ān.
(A) Relation of the attributes of God with His Essence
The Mu’tazilites explained the divine attributes such as the knowing, the powerful, the living and so on and so forth, as referring to His Being; and not that He possesses the qualities of knowledge, power, life, etc., apart from His essence. The fear to them was that should the qualities be considered as entities apart from the Divine Being that certainly would amount to polytheism because it will amount to plurality of eternals.
Thus the Mu’tazilites reduced God to an absolute unity divested of all qualities. The orthodox, on the other hand, look for nothing less than a personal God. This whole problem of the relation of God’s attributes with His essence is entirely above human reason: revelation alone is to guide us.
(B) Created-ness and Uncreated-ness of the Qur’ān
To the generality of the Muslims the Qur’ān is the word of God revealed to the holy Prophet. Thus the Qur’ān is also called the divine speech or the speech of God (i.e. Kalam Allah). Pious Muslims further hold that the Qur’ān is uncreated and has existed from eternity with God; its revelation to the Prophet, of course, was piecemeal as occasions demanded.
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The Mu’tazilites very strongly denied the eternity of the Qur’ān on the plea that God alone is eternal. According to them, those who believed in the uncreated-ness of the Qur’ān and make it co-eternal with God take unto themselves two gods and hence are polytheists.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
Relate the implications of the Mu’tazilites principles of divine unity to the attributes of God and the concept of the eternity of the Qur’ān . (C) Possibility of the Beatific Vision of God
Abu `l-Hudhayl and the majority of other Mu’tazilites maintained: ‘We would see God only with our mind’s eye, i.e. we would know Him only through the heart.’ The proofs they provided in support of their view on the impossibility of vision of God may be summed up under the following heads:
Proof from the Qur’ān
(i) Vision comprehendeth Him not but He comprehendeth all vision (Q.vi. 103)
The verse, according to them, is of general application and means that the physical eyes see God neither in this world nor in the next.
(ii) In reply to Moses’ supplication: My Lord, show me Thyself so that I may gaze upon Thee’ (Q.vii. 143), God said with an emphatic negation: ‘Thou wilt not see Me’.
(iii) They asked a greater thing of Moses than that; for they said:
‘Show us Allah manifestly’; a storm of lighting seized them for their wrongdoing (Q.iv. 153)
Had the people of Moses asked for a possible thing from God, they would not have been called wrongdoers and would not have been consequently overtaken by the storm of lightning.
Proof from the Optical Sciences
The Mu’tazilites maintained that the following conditions were necessary in order to see a thing:
(i) One must possess sound sight
(ii) The objects to be seen must be in front or opposite to the eye just as a thing to be reflected in a mirror must need to be opposite it
(iii) It must not be too distant from the eye
(iv) It must not be too near the eye either
(v) It must not be too fine to be looked at, i.e. it must be a coloured object or one sufficiently coarse.
In the opinion of the Mu’tazilites, since God as an object of vision does not satisfy the relevant conditions mentioned above, He cannot be seen with bodily eyes.
Proof from the Ħadīth
As for the saying ascribed to the holy Prophet: ‘You will see your Lord as you see the full moon while you will not disagree amongst yourself in regard to His vision’ (Tirmidhi), the Mu’tazilites hold that the tradition in question is of the category of ahādī and not that of Mutawātir, i.e. it comes only through a single channel of transmitters and as such is not acceptable when in conflict with an explicit verse of the Qur’ān such as: Vision comprehends Him not but He comprehends vision’. (Q.vi.103). They, on the other hand, alluded to a saying of Āishah according to which she questioned even the Prophet having seen God here in this world: “He who says the Prophet saw God in person tells a lie’ (Bukhārī).
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
As a corollary from their principle of divine unity the Mu’tazilites denied the Beatific Vision. State their arguments.
(D) Interpretation of the Anthropomorphic Verses of the Qur’ān
In the Holy Qur’ān we find many anthropomorphic expressions about God such as the following:
(i) So glory be to Him in Whose hand is the kingdom of all things (Q.34:83)
(ii) That which I have created with My hands (Q.38:75) (iii) Which swims forth under Our eyes (Q.54:14)
(iv) And the countenance of thy Lord would abide full of majesty and glory (Q.55:27)
(v) The Merciful God has seated himself on His throne (Q.20:5) (vi) Thou shall see the angels circling the throne uttering the praises
of their Lord (Q.39:75).
As may be expected an inference may be gathered easily from their view of the beatific vision, the Mu’tazilites naturally interpreted the anthropomorphic statements in the Holy Qur’ān such as the face, the hand and the eyes of God or His sitting upon the throne as merely
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metaphorical expressions. They repudiated literalism of all types in order to maintain the pure unity of God. The Mu’tazilites hence applied the principle of interpretation (ta’wīl) of the verses of the holy Qur’ān. The Mu’tazilites also denied the Prophets Ascension to the heavens in the physical sense.
SELF-ASSESSMENT EXERCISE
The Mu’tazilites attitude towards the Anthropomorphic Verses of the Qur’ān was negative. Expatiate on this statement.