Wāṣil ibn ʿAtāʾ (700–748) ( ar, واصل بن عطاء) was an important
Muslim theologian and jurist of his time, and by many accounts is considered to be the founder of the
Muʿtazilite school of
Kalam
''ʿIlm al-Kalām'' ( ar, عِلْم الكَلام, literally "science of discourse"), usually foreshortened to ''Kalām'' and sometimes called "Islamic scholastic theology" or "speculative theology", is the philosophical study of Islamic doc ...
.
Born around the year 700 in the
Arabian Peninsula, he initially studied under
Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, the grandson of
Ali. Later he would travel to
Basra
Basra ( ar, ٱلْبَصْرَة, al-Baṣrah) is an Iraqi city located on the Shatt al-Arab. It had an estimated population of 1.4 million in 2018. Basra is also Iraq's main port, although it does not have deep water access, which is han ...
in
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
to study under
Hasan of Basra
Abu Sa'id ibn Abi al-Hasan Yasar al-Basri, often referred to as Hasan of Basra (Arabic: الحسن البصري, romanized: ''Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī''; 642 - 15 October 728) for short, or as Hasan al-Basri, was an early Muslim preacher, ascetic ...
(one of the
Tabi‘in
The tābi‘ūn ( ar, اَلتَّابِعُونَ, also accusative or genitive tābi‘īn , singular ''tābi‘'' ), "followers" or "successors", are the generation of Muslims who followed the Companions of the Prophet, companions (''ṣaḥāb ...
). In Basra he began to develop the ideologies that would lead to the Muʿtazilite school. These stemmed from conflicts that many scholars had in resolving theology and politics. His main contribution to the Muʿtazilite school was in planting the seeds for the formation of its doctrine.
Wasil ibn Ata died in 748 in the Arabian Peninsula.
He married the sister of
Amr ibn Ubayd.
Al-Melal wan-Nahal (الملل والنحل) - Ja'far as-Sabhani
Arabic)
See also
* Islamic scholars
*Hasan al-Basri
Abu Sa'id ibn Abi al-Hasan Yasar al-Basri, often referred to as Hasan of Basra (Arabic: الحسن البصري, romanized: ''Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī''; 642 - 15 October 728) for short, or as Hasan al-Basri, was an early Muslim preacher, asceti ...
References
External links
Wasil ibn Ata
an article by Encyclopædia Britannica online.
Mu'tazilites
Mujaddid
700 births
748 deaths
8th-century Muslim scholars of Islam
8th-century Arabs
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