A Review on the Scholarhip of Mu‘tazili Theologian Al-Kabi Regarding His Views on Tawhid

Al-Ka‘bī is a theologian of the Baghdad Muʿtazila School, who lived mostly in Khorasan after being in the scholarly circles of Basra and Baghdad. Being one of the eminent scholars of Mu‘tazila, he travelled to Khorasan as a mission to spread theMu‘tazilī views in the region. For, al-Māturīdī's general criticism on the Mu‘tazila usually targets al-Ka‘bī. On the other hand, the most important work of al-Kaʿbīamong many, Kitāb al-Maqālāt, was also among the sources ofal-Ash‘arī's Maqālāt.Authored primarily as a separate work, ‘Uyūn al-masā'ilwa'l-jawābāt is on the theological polemics that soon incorporated as the fifth chapter of his Kitāb al-Maqālāt. Though it mainly holds discussions on existence, it also includes different topics on knowledge and divine attributes. In his work, al-Ka‘bī examines the Mu‘tazila perception of tawhid by framing the understanding on divine attributes and explaining his proofs on it.In this article, al-Ka‘bī's method of Kalām in general, his principal views and his role in the Mu‘tazila have been taken into account and his elaboration of the tawhid principle has been analysed in accordance to his work ‘Uyūn al-masā'ilwa'l-jawābāt.