Deism

=== Divinity schools in Islamic theology ===
{{main|Aqidah|God in Islam}}

In the [[history of Islam]], one of the earliest [[Schools of Islamic theology|systematic schools of Islamic theology]] to develop were the [[Mu'tazilism|Muʿtazila]] in the mid-8th century CE.<ref name="Schmidtke 2016">{{•}} {{cite book |last=Treiger |first=Alexander |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Origins of Kalām |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=27–43 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.001 |isbn=9780199696703 |lccn=2016935488 |access-date=2021-10-19 |archive-date=2022-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118051704/https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27 |url-status=live }}<br />{{•}} {{cite book |last=Abrahamov |first=Binyamin |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Scripturalist and Traditionalist Theology |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA264 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=264–279 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.025 |isbn=9780199696703 |lccn=2016935488 |access-date=2021-10-19 |archive-date=2022-11-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221118051704/https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA264 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Peters 1980">{{cite journal |author-last=Peters |author-first=J. R. T. M. |date=1980 |title=La théologie musulmane et l'étude du langage |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/hel_0750-8069_1980_num_2_1_1049 |journal=Histoire. Épistémologie. Langage |location=[[Paris]] |publisher=Société d'histoire et d'Épistémologie des Sciences du Langage |volume=2 |issue=1: ''Éléments d'Histoire de la tradition linguistique arabe'' |language=fr |doi=10.3406/hel.1980.1049 |doi-access=free |pages=9–19 |issn=1638-1580 |access-date=2021-11-30 |archive-date=2021-11-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130233309/https://www.persee.fr/doc/hel_0750-8069_1980_num_2_1_1049 |url-status=live }}</ref> Muʿtazilite theologians emphasized the use of [[reason]] and [[Rationalism|rational thought]], positing that the injunctions of [[God in Islam|God]] are accessible through rational thought and inquiry, and affirmed that [[Quranic createdness|the Quran was created]] (''makhlūq'') rather than co-eternal with God, which would develop into one of the most contentious questions in the history of Islamic theology.<ref name="Schmidtke 2016"/><ref name="Peters 1980"/>

In the 9th–10th century CE, the [[Ash'arism|Ashʿarī school]] developed as a response to the Muʿtazila, founded by the 10th-century Muslim scholar and theologian [[Abu Hasan al-Ash'ari|Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī]].<ref name="Thiele 2016">{{cite book |author-last=Thiele |author-first=Jan |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Between Cordoba and Nīsābūr: The Emergence and Consolidation of Ashʿarism (Fourth–Fifth/Tenth–Eleventh Century) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA225 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=225–241 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.45 |isbn=978-0-19-969670-3 |lccn=2016935488}}</ref> Ashʿarītes still taught the use of reason in understanding the Quran, but denied the possibility to deduce moral truths by reasoning.<ref name="Thiele 2016"/> This position was opposed by the [[Maturidism|Māturīdī school]];<ref name="Ulrich 2016">{{cite book |author-last=Rudolph |author-first=Ulrich |year=2016 |origyear=2014 |chapter=Part I: Islamic Theologies during the Formative and the Early Middle period – Ḥanafī Theological Tradition and Māturīdism |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA285 |editor-last=Schmidtke |editor-first=Sabine |editor-link=Sabine Schmidtke |title=The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology |location=[[Oxford]] and [[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=285–290 |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.023 |isbn=9780199696703 |lccn=2016935488 |access-date=2023-06-02 |archive-date=2023-01-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230101224726/https://books.google.com/books?id=70wnDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA285 |url-status=live }}</ref> according to its founder, the 10th-century Muslim scholar and theologian [[Abu Mansur al-Maturidi|Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī]], human reason is supposed to acknowledge the existence of a [[creator deity]] (''bāriʾ'') solely [[Rationalism|based on rational thought]] and independently from divine revelation.<ref name="Ulrich 2016"/> He shared this conviction with his teacher and predecessor [[Abu Hanifa an-Nu'man|Abū Ḥanīfa al-Nuʿmān]] (8th century CE), whereas al-Ashʿarī never held such a view.<ref name="Ulrich 2016"/>

According to the Afghan-American philosopher [[Sayed Hassan Akhlaq|Sayed Hassan Hussaini]], the early schools of Islamic theology and theological beliefs among [[Early Islamic philosophy|classical Muslim philosophers]] are characterized by "a rich color of Deism with a slight disposition toward [[theism]]".<ref name="Hussaini 2016">{{cite journal |last=Hussaini |first=Sayed Hassan |author-link=Sayed Hassan Akhlaq |date=2016 |title=Islamic Philosophy between Theism and Deism |journal=Revista Portuguesa de Filosofia |location=[[Braga]] |publisher=Aletheia - Associação Científica e Cultural |volume=72 |issue=1: ''Teísmos: Aportações Filosóficas do Leste e Oeste / Theisms: Philosophical Contributions from the East to the West'' |pages=65–83 |doi=10.17990/RPF/2016_72_1_0065 |issn=0870-5283 |jstor=43816275}}</ref>