Hisham B. Amr Al-Fuwati (oral-Fawti) a Mutazili of Basra, where he was the pupil of Abu'l Hudhayl. After having probably been a wandering propagator of Itizal (Ibn al-Nadim, Fihrist, ed. Fück, in Prof. Muh. Shafi presentation volume, Lahore 1955, 68-9), he went to Baghdad during the caliphate of al-Mamun and died there at a date not known exactly, but probably before 218/833.
His personal doctrine, which had a certain influence on al-Ashari, differs appreciably, according to Ibn al-Nadim (op. cit.), from the teachings of the other Mutazila, but the data given by the heresiographers are not always in agreement. Thus, according to al-Baghadadi (Fark, 150), he forbade murder of any kind, whereas according to al-Shahrastani (Milal, on the margin of Ibn Hazm, Fisal, i, 94) he allowed the assassination of opponents of Itizal and in that respect showed a fanaticism unusual among the Mutazila. Al-Shahrastani (op. cit., i, 91) emphasizes the extremism of his theory of free-will, for al-Fuwato demoes the intervention of God in the affairs of man, even when a verse of the Kuran states that God caused men to do such and such a deed. "Things" not being eternal, God cannot know them before having given them existence (al-Ashari, Makalat, ed. Ritter, 157, 488, 489; al-Shahrastani, op. cit., i, 94), for a "thing" is the realization of the essence within existence, that which has been created by God. He rejects the doctrine that God can be seen 'with the heart' (al-Ashari, op. cit., 157) and holds that it is not the accidents that prove that God is creator, but material things (al-Shahrastani, op. cit., i, 92; al-Khayyat, intisar, ed. and trans. A. Nader, Beirut 1957, text 49, trans. 54), that is to say the substances which are realized when God gives them existence. Al-Fuwati regards as infidels those who believe that heaven and hell already exist, since these are for the moment unnecessary (al-Bghdadi, op. cit., 150; al-Idji, Mawakif, 375; al-Shahrastani, op. cit., i, 93). In politics, he tends to the SunnÊ view; he holds that the imam ought to be elected, but he would allow this only in a time of calm and order, which al-Shahrastani (op. cit., i, 93) considers a sign of hostility towards the caliphate of Ali (cf. al-Baghdadi, op. cit., 150; idem, Usul al-din, 271; Pellat, in St. Isl., xv, 39).
The basic points of the doctrine of al-Fuwati are now known only from the heresiographers, but Ibn al-Nadim attributes to him the following works: K. al-Makhluk; K. al-Radd 'ala 'l-Asamm fi nafy al-harakat; K. Khalkal-Kuran; K. al-Tawhid; K. Djwab ahle Khurasan, Kitab ila ahlal-Basra; K. Usul al-khams (sic); K. 'ala 'l-Bakriyya; Kitab 'ala Abi 'l-Hudhayl fi'lnaim.
(Ch. Pellat)