The Mu’tazalite ideologue, Yahya Ibn Aktham

Compiled By: Syed Ali Shahbaz
On 15th of the Islamic month of Zil-Hijjah in 242 AH, the Mu’tazalite ideologue, Yahya Ibn Aktham, died in Rabadha. He was a close confidante of Mamoun, the self-styled caliph of the usurper Abbasid regime, and was hopelessly outwitted in the famous debate he held in the front of the whole court with the young Imam Mohammad Taqi (AS), the 9th Infallible Heir of Prophet Mohammad (SAWA) on jurisprudential issues.
Some two decades later, Yahya wrote a series of complicated questions to try to test the God-given knowledge of Imam Ali al-Hadi (AS), and was astounded by the answers provided by the Prophet’s 10th Infallible Successor to which he had no clue himself.
Yahya Ibn Aktham was appointed as Chief Judge of Basra, but Mamoun was forced to dismiss him because of his open indulgence in the cardinal sin of sodomy, after a series of complaints from the people.
In the History of Baghdad it is written that a poet named Ahmad Ibn Abu Na’eem wrote the following quatrain that shows the judge, the governor and the regime in their true anti-Islamic colours:
"Our Governor takes bribe,
Our Judge is homosexual
And as long as the Abbasids rule
I have no confidence that tyranny will subside"