Editing Mu'tazilism (section)

===The first obligation===
Mu'tazilis believed that the first obligation on humans, specifically adults in full possession of their mental faculties, is to use their intellectual power to ascertain the existence of God, and to become knowledgeable of his attributes. One must wonder about the whole existence, that is, about why something exists rather than nothing. If one realises that there is a being who caused this universe to exist, not reliant on anything else and absolutely free from any type of need, then one realizes that this being is all-wise and morally perfect. If this being is all-wise, then his very act of creation cannot be haphazard or in vain. One must then be motivated to ascertain what this being wants from humans, for one may harm oneself by simply ignoring the whole mystery of existence and, consequently, the plan of the Creator. This paradigm is known in [[Kalam|Islamic theology]] as ''wujub al-nazar'', i.e., the obligation to use one's speculative reasoning to attain ontological truths. About the "first duty," ʿAbd al-Jabbar said it is "speculative reasoning (''al-nazar'') which leads to knowledge of God, because he is not known by the way of necessity (''daruratan'') nor by the senses (''bi l-mushahada''). Thus, he must be known by reflection and speculation."{{sfn|Martin|1997|page=90}}

The difference between Mu'tazilis and other Muslim theologians is that Mu'tazilis consider ''al-nazar'' an obligation even if one does not encounter a fellow human being claiming to be a messenger from the Creator, and even if one does not have access to any alleged God-inspired or God-revealed scripture. On the other hand, the obligation of ''nazar'' towards other Muslim theologians is realized when encountering [[Prophet|prophets]] or [[Religious text|scripture]]. In this case, it was realized with the sending of the last prophet [[Muhammad]] and the last holy book, the [[Quran]]. In this way, the obligation to ''nazar'' is only carried out by studying the Quran and hadith of the prophet Muhammad, and also using the wisdom of the theologians and philosophers who followed him.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kazanç |first=Fethi Kerim |date=2018-07-31 |title=An Overview of Knowledge-Value Relationship in Mu'tazilite Ethical Theory |url=https://zenodo.org/records/1488648 |journal=DergiPark |doi=10.5281/zenodo.1488648}}</ref>