Qasim summarized his teachings in five "pillars" (), which echoed and revised those of the
Mu'tazilite doctrine: • In his views on God, the Christian influence is evident, as Qasim emphasized, according to Wilferd Madelung, the "total dissimilarity () of God to all creation", and regarded "the essential generosity () and goodness of God" as the chief divine attributes, while ignoring the Mu'tazilite distinction between divine essence and God's acts. • Following from the previous, Qasim's conception of divine justice () "strictly dissociated God from evil acts and affirmed human free will", in the words of Madelung. He explicitly rejected the Mu'tazilite concept of "compensation" () for the sufferings inflicted during one's life, especially since—another borrowing from Christian theology—the blessings conferred by God far outweighed any sufferings inflicted, just or unjust. On the issue of
predestination, he followed a cautious middle road between the Mu'tazilite rejection of the concept, and the traditional Zaydi doctrine supporting it. • Consequent to his ideas on divine justice, Qasim affirmed the inevitability of the "
promise and threat" () of God, namely the reward of believers and the punishment of sinners in the afterlife. • In a distinction with Mu'tazilite thought, Qasim firmly upheld the Zaydi doctrine that considered acts of injustice and oppression as a form of unbelief (), even though they were not outright idolatry (). Hence Muslim oppressors were to be regarded as outright unbelievers, and not merely sinful Muslims; this point in the Zaydi doctrine justified fighting against even Muslim rulers and their supporters if they were considered as oppressive. Qasim considered the Muslim rulers of his time as illegitimate tyrants, and the lands they ruled as "abode of injustice" (), meaning that it was the duty of every faithful Muslim to emigrate (, cf. also ) from their lands. • According to Qasim, the
Quran was at the centre of all religious matters: accepting the Quran as "detailed, unambiguous and free of contradiction" (Madelung), he rejected claims by the Imami Shi'a (Twelver and Isma'ili) that
some parts had been lost or altered. On the thorny issue of
Quranic createdness, he avoided taking sides explicitly, although his theological positions imply that he leaned to the Mu'tazilite opinion that it was created, rather than the overwhelming contemporary Zaydi (and Sunni) view that it was not. At the same time, Qasim fiercely criticized the admission of un-Quranic as legitimate , and accused the Sunni traditionalists of forging and contributing to the oppressive regimes of the Muslim rulers of his time. On the attributes required for claiming the imamate according to Zaydi doctrine, Qasim stressed the religious qualifications of the candidate over the traditional requirement to lead an armed revolt. He rejected the first three
Rashidun caliphs as illegitimate, and held Ali ibn Abi Talib as the only legitimate successor of Muhammad. He accepted the fifth Imami imam,
Muhammad al-Baqir (d. ), but not his successors, whom he considered, in the words of Madelung, as "wordly exploiters of their pious followers". His doctrines became the foundation for the religious and legal systems of the Zaydi states in
Tabaristan and
Yemen, but were heavily amended by his grandson Yahya to a more mainstream Shi'a and Mu'tazilite direction. == See also ==