Mutazilites

founders of a rationalistic trend in early Muslim theology; the trend arose during the Arabian Caliphate in the eighth century. The original founder of Mutazilism is considered to be Wasil ibn Ata (699–748). The theoreticians of Mutazilism rejected many of the dogmas of orthodox Islam: the existence of attributes of god independent of him; anthropomorphism; and the dogma of the noncreatedness of the Koran, which regarded the Koran as merely one of the creations of god. The Mutazilites recognized the freedom of the human will and declared human reason to be the highest criterion for the norms of morality. The Mutazilites also attempted to reconcile classical dialectical-rationalistic thought with the fundamental principles of the Islamic world view.