Abu al-Hudhayl al-'Allaf

{{Short description|Muslim philosopher}}

{{Infobox religious biography

| name = Abu al-Hudhayl al-'Allaf

| religion = Islam

| denomination = Mu'tazila

| birth_date = {{circa}} 752

| birth_place = Basra

| death_date = {{circa}} 841

| death_place = Samara

| era = Islamic Golden Age

| main_interests = Islamic theology, Islamic philosophy

| notable_ideas = Islamic rationalism, Mu'tazila atomism, Five principle of Mu'tazila

| influences = Wasil ibn Ata, Amr ibn Ubayd

| influenced = Ibrahim an-Nazzam, Al-Jahiz, Al-Jubba'i, Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad, Abu al-Husayn al-Basri

}}

Abû al-Hudhayl Muhammad ibn al-Hudhayl al-'Abdî, or Abu al-Hudhayl al-‘Allâf (752 CE – 841 CE), was an Mu'tazilite theologian and philosopher. He was one of the early Mu'tazila theologians in the development of Islamic rationalism. Abu al-Hudhayl was one of the philosophers who brought atomism into Islamic philosophy.{{Cite web |title=al-Hudhayl, Abu'l Hudhayl al-‘Allaf |url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095402395 |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=Oxford Reference |language=en |doi=}}{{Cite web |last=Universalis |first=Encyclopædia |date=2025-01-29 |title=Biography of Abu al-Hudhayl al-'Allaf |url=https://www.universalis.fr/encyclopedie/abu-l-hudhayl-al-allaf/ |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=Encyclopædia Universalis |language=fr-FR}}

Abu al-Hudhayl introduced the concept of atoms as the basis of material ontology. According to him, the universe consists of atoms created by Allah, and the movement is the result of changes in atoms. This theory became the foundation for the development of atomism philosophy in Early Islamic philosophy, especially in Mu'tazilism.{{Citation |last=Biesterfeldt |first=Hinrich |title=Review of R.M. Frank: The Metaphysics of Created Being According to Abû l-Hudhayl al-ʿAllâf |date=2018-01-01 |work=Kleine Schriften by Josef van Ess (3 vols) |pages=1117–1120 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004336483/B9789004336483_080.xml?srsltid=AfmBOorbpFfzLo0oEVZhbCLvEWTge8Po2mFcXMzsvHgT59nLZ2sIMpNL |access-date=2025-04-17 |publisher=Brill |language=en |isbn=978-90-04-33648-3}}