A Study and Critique of the Viewpoint of Qāḍī ʿAbdul Jabbār Muʿtazilī on the Ontology of Attributes and the Relationship Between Attributes and the Essence of God

   The ontology of God’s attributes and the relationship between His Attributes and His Essence is one of the oldest debates in theological and doctrinal discussions and is one of the most important and controversial issues. Since Qāḍī ʿAbdul Jabbār Muʿtazilī (Arabic: قاضی عبدالجَبّار مُعْتَزلی) is one of the experts in such discussions, the present study has examined and criticized his view on this issue. The findings of the research indicate that although Qāḍī ʿAbdul Jabbār Muʿtazilī has proved the Perfect Attributes of God in the ontology of the Attributes of God, through the analogy from man to God, but this analogy faces serious criticisms and challenges and the most important challenge is that this analogy is an analogy deprived of relevance (Arabic: قیاس مَعَ الْفارِق). Although Qāḍī ʿAbdul Jabbār Muʿtazilī has not made any distinction between the Essence of God and His Attributes, and has considered the attributes as mental conceptions that have no truth in the essence, nor are they distinct from the essence, but he has considered the attributes to be the essence itself, and the important challenge of his view is that his presentation of this view is due to his inability to correctly conceive of the view of objectivity. His view is that we assume that God is a possible and limited being, who lacks perfect attributes, while God Almighty possesses perfect attributes. This is because the requirement of his view is that we assume that God is a contingent and limited being, who lacks perfect attributes, while God possesses perfect attributes (Attribute of Perfection).