A summary of the concepts held by the Ahl al-Sunnah.
The Mu'tazila.
The origin of the Mu'tazila.
It traces back to Wasil Ibn 'Ata'.
Who differed with Imam al-Hasan al-Basri, may Allah have mercy on him, regarding the one who commits a major sin.
For al-Hasan stated regarding him:
He is a believer by virtue of his faith,
but a transgressor (fasiq) by virtue of his major sin.
That is the position of the Ahl al-Sunnah.
Wasil then said:
He is in a position between the two positions.
Neither a believer nor a disbeliever.
Consequently, it followed that
Wasil Ibn 'Ata' withdrew,
along with some who agreed with his view,
from the circle of al-Hasan al-Basri.
Thus, they were named the Mu'tazila (the Withdrawers).
Their ideas then developed and branched out.
They were joined by the Jahmiyyah,
and they adopted the doctrine of the Qadariyyah,
who deny the divine decree (qadar),
and Allah’s foreknowledge of events before they occur.
They also deny that Allah created evil or willed it.
They do not distinguish between the legislative will and the universal will.
Their innovation eventually settled upon five principles.
First: Justice.
By this, they mean denying that Allah ordains or creates the actions of His servants.
Rather, they claim that servants create their own actions.
Second:
Monotheism (Tawhid).
Its reality, according to them, is the negation of attributes from Allah,
under the pretext of declaring Him, the Almighty and Majestic, free from resembling His creation.
Third:
The position between the two positions.
This is the foundational innovation of the Mu'tazila, as previously mentioned.
Fourth:
The Promise and the Threat.
Its meaning, according to them, is
that it is incumbent upon Allah, the Exalted,
just as He made it incumbent upon Himself, to fulfill His promise.
Thus, they consign the one who commits a major sin to eternal fire, just as the Khawarij say,
although they place him in a level of the Fire lighter than that of the disbeliever.
Fifth:
Enjoining good and forbidding evil.
Its reality, according to them, is
rebelling with the sword against unjust leaders,
and breaking away from the community of Muslims who have gathered under them.
They rebel against the ruler simply for committing any type of sin or injustice.
When the leaders of the salaf confronted the Mu'tazila with the proofs of the Qur'an and Sunnah,
which refute their false principles,
and demolish their flimsy arguments,
they resorted to another innovation which they made one of their principles of deduction:
the innovation of prioritizing reason over revelation.
They interpret the texts of the Qur'an and Sunnah if they contradict what their corrupt reasoning dictates.
They also rejected solitary hadiths (ahad)
that contradict their theological principles.
Today, the Mu'tazila are joined in their sanctification of reason and prioritizing it over the text
by a fringe group of outcasts
who call themselves "Modernists,"
or "Rationalists,"
or "Enlightenment thinkers."
They label the Mu'tazila as the "Enlightened Rationalist School."
In doing so, they have served the secularists in their efforts to abandon the beliefs and rulings of the religion.