Motazila – In the Umayyad era

Baghdadi writes in the book ‘Al Farq bainal Firaq’: When Wasil bin Ataa e Ghazal contradicted Hasan Basri regarding the destiny and ‘the position between the two positions’, i.e. the position between faith and infidelity, Amr bin Ubaid joined hands with him in the initiation of this innovative theory.

          Hasan expelled them from his gathering and they separated from him seeking shelter near one of the pillars of the mosque of Basra and their followers were named Motazela; because they set themselves aside from other’s faith and began to claim that whoever commits debauchery amongst the Muslims, he is neither a believer nor an infidel.

          ‘Broon’ says about the birth of Motazela: What we have gathered regarding the emergence of Motazela and the reason behind them receiving such a name, is that Wasil bin Ataa e Ghazal who was an Iranian by race, contradicted his teacher regarding the believers who committed sins, if they remained believers of not?

          Wasil used to say: Such a person cannot be called a believer or an infidel; although, he should be allotted a position between faith and infidelity.

          Wasil chose a place for himself in a distant region of the mosque and used to illustrate his ideology for the people and Hasan Basri used to tell his companions: Wasil has separated from us and named him and his followers, Motazela.

                  According to ‘Doozi’, the information which he gathered explains that the place of emergence of this sect is in Iraq, i.e. the old Babylon, where the Saami race met the Iranian race and after mating with each other, the region became the Mecca of knowledge and after a while, the center of the Abbasside rule.

          As per the belief of ‘Phon Kremer’, the Motazela sect emerged in Damascus under the influence of the Roman religious leaders, especially Yahya e Damishqi and his student ‘Theodore Abu Qurra’. Another name of this sect, i.e. the word Qadriyya, which has a more certain implication and is related to the beliefs of those who consider that man has freewill in his decisions, and is also related to the narration that has been made up from the saying of Holy Prophet (p.b.u.h.) that Qadriyya are the Zoroastrians of this nation; because this group, as per the saying of ‘Stenner’, considers the existence of evil to be possible and have made another theory which proposes that the Human-will stands in opposition to the Divine-will.[1]