THE ARABIAN PHILOSOPHY 



heresies arose before the end of its first century. 

 Each had its origin in the same cause : some inde- 

 pendent spirits attempted to explain doubtful or ob- 

 scure passages in their several Scriptures, or to make 

 clear the exact significance of dogmas derived there- 

 from. Thus arose various schools that interpreted 

 the Koran diversely. The advocates of the several 

 schisms learned to clothe their arguments in dialectic 

 forms that philosophy furnished, so that they gradu- 

 ally changed from being schools of theology only 

 into schools of philosophy. 



The first heresy was that of the Kadrites, who held 

 the doctrine of Free Will : that man alone deter- 

 mined his own actions, whether good or evil. To 

 them were opposed the Djabarites, or absolute Fatal- 

 ists : that man had no power whatever in himself. 

 This doctrine would have accorded well enough with 

 the orthodox belief if its author, in his desire to avoid 

 attributing to God the qualities of the creature, had 

 not made of Him an abstract being, devoid of all 

 attributes and action. Against both of these arose 

 the Cifatites, who, taking literally the words of the 

 Koran regarding the attributes of God, fell into the 

 grossest anthropomorphism. Finally came the " Mo- 

 tazeles," or " Dissenters/' who avoided the extremes 

 of the other beliefs. They differed in their own sects 

 on minor details, but agreed in not recognizing in 



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