Abstract:
Some Muslim intellectuals have expressed a renewal
interest in the classical school of Islamic theology known
as the Mu'taziIa. In particular, the Mu'razli inclusion of
the human intellect., along with divine revalatron, as a
source of the knowledge of God and ethical action in the
world is of interest to modernist muslim theologians in
fndonesia and elsewhere. While most modernist adhere to
traditionalist. Sunni doctrine that knowledge of god come
from the sacred texts and interpretive process of divine
legislation (sharia) , they nonetheless stress the function of reason to f ind f slamic solutions to historical and sosial problems in the world.
Under quite dif f erent hist.orical circurstances, the Mu'tazil i theologians of the tenth and eleventh centuries C.E. worked, although more for the purpose of knowing God as
a first principle of religious knowledge than for determining ethical action in t.he world. This thesis presents a study of the Mu'tazila. After a survey of the
intellect.ual and political history of the school. is a chapter on the works and achievement of Qadi Abd aI-Jabbar's
compendium of theology, Kitab al-usul al-khamsa [The book of
the five fundamentals (of religion)] . This is followed by
its translation on final chapter (four) .
