An Occasionalist Reading of Al‐Ashʿarī's Theory of Kasb in Kitāb al‐Lumaʿ

Abstract

AbstractThis paper offers an occasionalist reading of al‐Ashʿarī's theory of kasb in Kitāb al‐Lumaʿ against Richard Frank's reading. Frank argues that according to al‐Ashʿarī human beings have causal power that is created by God over their acts. Binyamin Abrahamov argues against Frank's reading because while al‐Lumaʿ does not support this interpretation, the text suggests al‐Ashʿarī's denial of causal efficacy from the created power. I expand Abrahamov's claims through a deeper comparison of al‐Lumaʿ and Frank's analysis. First, I argue that the only textual evidence might be al‐Ashʿarī's use of the verb waqaaʿ bi when al‐Ashʿarī says that acquisition come through a created power. A mere employment of this word does not indicate a causal relation between the created power and acquisition. Moreover, al‐Ashʿarī uses waqaaʿ bi to describe the concurrence of the so‐called natural causes while he never attributes causal efficacy to them. Another problem in Frank's reading is that the attribution of causal efficacy to the created power not only takes al‐Ashʿarī's theory out of the boundaries of occasionalism, but also approaches it to mere conservationism. Second, I agree with Abrahamov's occasionalist reading according to which the relation between the created power and acquisition can be a conditional relation.