The five central Muʿtazilite principles are:
1. ʿAdl (justice) — a particular account of divine justice in relation to human evil acts.
2. Tawḥīd (oneness) — reasoning about divine unity that leads to treating the Qur'an as created.
3. Infādh al-waʿīd — holding that the threatened punishment must be carried out.
4. Al-manzilah bayna al-manzilatayn — assigning the major sinner an intermediate status between faith and unbelief.
5. Commanding good and forbidding evil — a particular political and practical interpretation of this duty.
The labels sound like familiar religious terms; the disagreement concerns the particular meanings and consequences attached to them.