Mu'tazila

The Mu'tazila is a school of Islamic theology that stressed God's justice and unity, human free will and reason's power to know right and wrong.

It arose in Basra in the eighth century, traditionally with Wasil ibn Ata, and flourished in Basra and Baghdad, where for a time in the ninth century it had the support of the caliphs. Mu'tazilis held that the Qur'an was created, that God is just and does not compel human acts, and that good and evil can be known by reason. Al-Jahiz was a celebrated writer of the school. Its ideas lived on in Shi'i and Jewish theology. On this site it answers questions on free will (1.7), meta-ethics and divine command ethics.