A Consideration and Critique of the Validity of the Principle of Grace

The majority of Shiite and Muʿtazilite theologians have endorsed the validity of the principle of grace (qāʿidat al-luṭf). In this paper, I begin with an account of the principle of grace. It turns out that things by which compliance with God is enabled can be proved by the principle of “enablement” (tamkīn), and once these come to exist, the principle of grace arises as additional to the principle of enablement. Next, I consider the validity of the principle of grace. The theory seems to face serious challenges. First, it is necessary by light of human reason that God should create things without which obedience of God is not possible, but human reason never rules that God should create what makes one closer to obedience. Instead, sometimes God’s wisdom requires that He does not exhibit grace as a test for His servants. Second, there are things which, by the principle of grace, should have come into existence, but they have never existed. To solve the second problem, one might claim that the principle of grace does not encompass personal instances of grace, but the proposed solution faces its own sorts of problems.