Divine Command in Some Medieval Islamic Thinkers

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Abstract The chapter examines three medieval Islamic thinkers, ‘Abd al-Jabbar, al-Ash‘ari, and al-Maturidi. Since al-Maturidi’s work is almost unknown in the West, the chapter contains a number of lengthy quotations from him, some of them appearing in English for the first time. The chapter examines each of the three thinkers under three headings. The first heading is whether actions have an intrinsic evaluative character, or whether that character is given by divine command. The second heading is human freedom, and whether human action is divinely caused. The third heading is the relation between reason and revelation. In all three cases, al-Maturidi is shown to occupy an intermediate position between ‘Abd al-Jabbar and al-Ash‘ari. The chapter ends with a discussion of the contribution that al-Maturidi makes to divine command theory.