Philosophers Jahmiyyah Muʿtazilah Ashʿariyyah/Māturīdiyyah Ahl al-Sunnah

Consider the “First They are closest to the They affirmed the Broadly speaking, they Affirm whatever has
Cause” or “Prime Mover” Philosophers, and deny names (on the surface, affirm seven attributes come in the Qurʾan and
pretty much to be a all names, attributes and apparently) but these primarily through reason, the Sunnah of names,
concept, an abstraction actions for Allāh upon names do not represent and they deny the ṣifāt attributes and actions
of the mind, who cannot the claim that affirming attributes for Allāh, as khabariyyah (attributes upon a uniform,
be predicated with any any positive attributes they negate attributes known only through coherent principle with
names or attributes and amounts to making for Allāh, claiming that revealed text). They also negation of likeness
who is spoken of as Allāh a body (jism). multiple attributes for deny Allāh’s chosen actions. (tamthīl) and delving
“without body”, Allāh means there are The attributes they affirm into the how (takyīf).
“without parts”, Ultimately, the saying of multiple entities eternal are: life (ḥayāt), hearing
“without activity” and so the Philosophers and with Allāh, so they (samʿ), seeing (baṣr), Refer to previous lessons
on, from whom the ten the Jahmiyyah leads to treated attributes as knowledge (ʿilm), power for details.
categories of Aristotle atheism and the non- individual entities, and (qudrah), wish (irādah) and
are negated. existence of a creator, claimed this would speech (kalām), The
because what they are mean that Allāh is Māturīdīs add an eighth
What they conceive of is claiming to be a “first “composed” which is creation (takwīn)
really only an idea in the cause” or a creator is (murakkab). into which they place all of
mind and has no really just an idea in the Allāh’s actions, and make
existence in external mind having no external this an eternal attribute.
reality. reality.

There are only two coherent viewpoints. Either you negate everything upon a consistent uniform principle, or you affirm everything upon a
consistent uniform principle. For that reason, groups such as the Muʿtazilah, Ashʿariyyah and Māturīdiyyah fall into many contradictions in
attempting to justify their viewpoints. Yaḥyā bin ʿAmmār (d. 422H): (‫ )رحمه هللا‬said: “The Muʿtazilites are the effeminates (makhānīth) of the
Jahmites and the Ashʿarites are the effeminates of the Muʿtazilites.”
Abu ʿIyaaḍ — Lessons on Taqrīb al-Tadmuriyyah — Middlesbrough, 27th November 2022
Here are Aristotle’s ten categories, the first deals with "what something is":
1. substance (jawhar)
The rest are incidental attributes (a’raad) which deal with "how it is":
1. quantity (al-kam) - dimensions and measurable features, length, breadth, width and so on
2. quality (al-kayf) - perceived characteristics, color, shape, and so on.
3. relation (al-idaafah) - how a substance is in relation to others, above, below, right, left and so on.
4. place (al-ayn) - where it is
5. time (mataa) answering "when?" - temporal characteristics of the substance
6. position (al-wad’) - how a substance’s parts are ordered in relation to each other
7. action (yaf’al) acting - what a substance is doing
8. affection (yanfa’il) a substance being acted upon
9. having (al-mulk) - what the substance has on

The “Tawḥīd” of the People of Kalām is based around negating these ten categories from Allāh and
explaining away those texts of the attributes which they consider to fall into these ten categories, either
with taʾwīl (figurative explanation) or tafwīḍ (claiming the meaning of the text is unknown and left to
Allāh’s knowledge).