Richard C. Martin

This is a multifarious survey of past and present of Islamic rationalism and an invaluable work as far as contemporary sense of classical Mutazilite rationalism is concerned. Authors have also contributed greatly to Islamic studies by introducing comparatively lesser known modern scholars like Harun Nasution and Hassan Hanafi. One can just hope that more works like this would tremendously help reviving the spirit of Kalam.

Muʿtazilah (Arabic: المعتزلة‎) is an Islamic school of speculative theology that flourished in the cities of Basra and Baghdad, both in present-day Iraq, during the Abbasid Age (800-1050 CE). Though Mu'tazilis later relied on logic and different aspects of early Islamic philosophy, Greek philosophy, and Hellenistic philosophy, the truths of Islam were their starting point and ultimate reference.

Table Of Contents Introduction - a tale of two texts; the rise and fall of the show more Mu'tazila in premodern Islam; the life and works of Qadi' abd Al-Jabbar; a thick description of the five Usul; Kiab Al-Usul Al-Khamsa (book of the five fundamentals) - a translation; the persistance of traditionalism and rationalism; the significance of Mu'tazilism in Indonesia; Harun Naustion's defense of Mu'tazilism; Kaum Mu'tazilah dan Pandangan Rasionalanya (the Mu'Tazila and rational philosophy) - a translation; modern and postmodern glosses of Mu'tazilism; the implication of modernity - deconstructing the argument.

p. 232, `aql, reason; rationalism in Islam thought.

p. 233, islamiyun, Islamists, contemporary traditionalist Muslims, sometime referred to as fundamentalists, who seek to make the Shari`a the highest and most pervasive authority in Islamic states. show less