Para ulama Mu'tazilah menafsirkan Al-Qur'an sedemikian rupa untuk mendukung dan membela gagasan-gagasan mereka yang khas dan menyimpang, yang sebelumnya tidak pernah dikemukakan oleh para ulama awal di kalangan sahabat, tabi'in, maupun murid-murid mereka. Banyak tafsir awal mereka, seperti tafsir para ulama ortodoks, telah hilang seiring waktu, dan kita hanya mengetahuinya dari rujukan yang dibuat oleh para sezaman mereka. Metode tafsir mereka dianggap sebagai tafsir bi ad-dirayah dalam bentuk yang paling buruk. Tafsir semacam itu dikenal karena pengabaiannya yang total terhadap pendapat para mufassir awal, serta penolakannya yang sepenuhnya terhadap makna-makna leksikal klasik.

The Mu‘tazilee scholars interpreted the Qur’aan in such a way as to support and defend their unique and unorthodox ideas which had never before been expressed by the early scholars among the sahaabah, the taabi‘oon, or their students. Many of their early tafseers, like those of orthodox scholars, were lost in time and we only know about them from references made to them by their contemporaries. Their method of tafseer is considered tafseer bid-diraayah of the worst kind. Such tafseers are noted for their total disregard for the opinions of the early mufassirs, as well as their complete dismissal of classical lexical meanings.