Note 48 — Chapter VIII · FREETHOUGHT UNDER ISLAM1

The Motazilites, once started, divided gradually into a score of sects,48 all more or less given to rationalizing within the limits of monotheism.49 The first stock were named Kadarites, because insisting on man’s power (kadar) over his acts.50 Against them were promptly ranged the Jabarites, who affirmed that man’s will was wholly under divine constraint (jabar).51 Yet another sect, the Sifatites, opposed both of the others, some of them52 standing for a literal interpretation of the Koran, which is in part predestinationist, and in parts assumes freewill; while the main body of orthodox, following the text, professed to respect as insoluble mystery the contradictions they found in it.53 The history of Islam in this matter is strikingly analogous to that of Christianity from the rise of the Pelagian heresy.