Wasil ibn Ata

Who was Wasil ibn Ata?

Wasil ibn Ata was an important Muslim theologian and jurist of his time, and by many accounts is considered to be the founder of the Mutazilite school of Islamic thought.

Born around the year 700 in the Arabian Peninsula, he initially studied under Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hanafiyyah, the grandson of the renowned Rashidun Caliph Ali ibn Abi Talib. Later he would travel to Basra in Iraq to study under Hasan al-Basri. In Basra he began to develop the ideologies that would lead to the Mutazilite school. These stemmed from conflicts that many scholars had in resolving theology and politics. His main contribution to the Mutazilite 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.