A Methodological Study and Critique of the Manuscript of " Khalq al-Kāfir wa al-Gharaḍ Minho" of Shaykh Al-Hurr Al-Āmil

Shaykh Al-Hurr Al-Āmilī (1033/1624 - 1104/1693), one the most prominent Shiite scholars in the fields of Shiite knowledge and jurisprudence,has specifically addressed the issue of the creation of the unbeliever in an unpublished manuscript entitled “Khalq al-Kāfir wa al-Gharaḍ Minhu”, in which he has tried to answer the question why God has created the unbeliever, giving him opportunity to live and to dominate the believers, while his traits where obvious in the Divine decree. Other notions in the Qur’an and hadiths such as the special nature (ṭinat), Destiny and Providence (qaḍa-qadar) and the divine Will have in one or other way supported the belief of determinism.
The main solution provided by Shaykh in this book is to give priority to the rational arguments. He first assesses his creed according to rational argumentation and then provides support from the Qur’an and hadiths for those rational conclusions. Regarding the many hadiths cited by the author, this article has foremost studied his methodology of understanding i.e. his “fiqh al-hadith system” considering doctrinal hadiths in two steps: “understanding the meaning” and “understanding the sense”.
Given the fact that Shaykh sought to provide a convincing and applicable answer, this article has examined his answers by the aforementioned features in respect to his doctrinal believes and his system of categorizing.