Ta'tili

Ta'til means "negation", and the Ta'tili school is the "Negationist" school of Kalam, the school/tradition of Negative theology according to Islam. Negative/apophatic theology and its procedures in Islam were first clearly found in the writings of Ali. Followers of the Ta'tili school are called Mu'attil. They formally reject any attribution to the essence of God. The Jahmiyya, founded by Jahm_bin_Safwan, is one of the major Ta'tili schools of Kalam. The Mu'tazili also adopted Ta'tili views regarding God, and so did the Ash'ari, but the latter only to some extent. Salafis, who believe in an anthropomorpic essence of God in a literal sense hold the Ta'tili to be atheist or rejecters of attributes, and thus, disbelievers. The Ta'tili view their Kalam tradition to be deducing the ultimate nature of God, while considering the attributes mentioned in religious revelation to be relative. Hence they view their logical Kalam as separate from and preceding religious knowledge or revelation. To them, Prophet Muhammad was first a Hanif/Mu'attil, and only then did revelation come to him. Prominent among the modern day Mu'attil is Maolana M. Shahruz Zahrat of Bangladesh.

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*Divisions of Islam