Does Ibn Atiyya's commentary lean towards the Mu'tazila?

Ibn Atiyya's al-Muharrar al-Wajiz counts among the standard Sunni commentaries, yet two major scholars charged it with leaning towards the Mu'tazila, as Majd Makki notes in his introduction to the book: Ibn Taymiyya, and Ibn Hajar al-Haytami quoting Ibn Arafa the Maliki. ¹ The question concerns the commentary's relation to theology (kalam): Majd Makki notes that in matters of creed Ibn Atiyya drew on the works of al-Ash'ari, al-Baqillani and al-Juwayni. ²

In his introduction to the principles of tafsir, Ibn Taymiyya states that the commentary of Ibn Atiyya and its like is "more faithful to the Sunna and the community, and safer from innovation" than al-Kashshaf; he then faults it for leaving aside, without reporting it, what Ibn Jarir transmitted from the early generations, and giving instead what it claims to be the view of "the verifiers" — by whom, he says, it means a group of theologians who established their principles by methods of the same kind as those of the Mu'tazila, though nearer to the Sunna than the Mu'tazila — so that this is "part of interpretation according to a school". ¹ In his Fatawa he says that Ibn Atiyya's commentary is better than al-Zamakhshari's, sounder in transmission and further from innovation, though it contains some, "indeed perhaps the most preferable of these commentaries". ^{1 3}

Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, in al-Fatawa al-Hadithiyya, quotes Ibn Arafa the Maliki as holding Ibn Atiyya's commentary more dangerous than al-Kashshaf: al-Zamakhshari's Mu'tazilism was well known, so readers of his commentary were on their guard, whereas Ibn Atiyya was known as a Sunni "but slips Mu'tazilism into his commentary". ¹

Majd Makki records that his teacher Dr Abd al-Wahhab Fayid examined the charge in Manhaj Ibn Atiyya fi Tafsir al-Qur'an, showed that it has no sound basis and that Ibn Atiyya kept to the Sunni position without departing from it and refuted Mu'tazili views, and concluded after long study that the charge is "rejected in form and in substance". ¹ Among earlier judgements Majd Makki quotes Ibn Juzayy, who calls Ibn Atiyya "mindful of the Sunna". ⁴