The Shaykh’s talk on the Mu'tazilah and their belief in divine decree.

The Shaykh : As for the third group, who opposed the two groups mentioned, they are the Mu'tazilah. They said there is no qadar (divine decree), denying qadar in its entirety. Their stance toward the texts from the Book and the Sunnah that establish qadar was completely similar to their other stances toward texts that contradicted their beliefs. They would interpret (ta'wil) the verses containing references to decree as much as they could, and they would reject the explicit hadiths regarding qada' wa qadar (divine decree and destiny). This is, of course, part of the misguidance of the Mu'tazilah, as it necessitated for them the rejection of dozens of texts, sometimes by way of denial to the extent that denial was possible for them—and this is specific to the Sunnah—and sometimes by way of ta'wil (figurative interpretation), which is taking a text away from its clear and evident meaning to a meaning that does not come to mind except with much contrivance. Why did the Mu'tazilah deny belief in qadar? The truth is that the matter was confusing to them, just as it was confusing to a faction of the first two groups, namely the Jabriyyah. The Jabriyyah understood from qadar that the human being is compelled and has no choice. However, the confusion persisted with them, so they said: since qadar necessitates compulsion, we believe that the human being is compelled. As for the Mu'tazilah, they agreed with the Jabriyyah in one aspect and differed from them in another. They shared with the Jabriyyah their understanding of compulsion from qadar, but they differed from and opposed them, saying: since qadar means compulsion, and compulsion is false, then what necessitates it is false. Therefore, there is no qadar. The truth is that qadar does not necessitate compulsion, because the divine qadar has decreed everything that will occur according to the eternal divine knowledge.