Debating the Doctrine of jabr (Compulsion) 73
In an early stage of the debate, the resourceful Sunni even invites a
Qadarī passer-by to participate, and the Qadarī voluntarily explains
his views on motives to the Jabrī. The Sunni interrupts, and negates the
Qadarī’s views altogether, thus demonstrating his skills in refuting the
arguments of two opponents at the same time.^43
In the few parts of the text where an apparent connection between
the Jabrī’s statements and the Sunni’s responses exists, we encounter a
more natural flow of the dialogue, as found in a face-to-face dispute
between two students. For example, after the Jabrī presents his ‘pre-
ponderance without a preponderator’ argument, the Sunni rejoins: “Is
this one of the arrows in your quiver? Thank God it does not have a
quill feather and an arrowhead! On top of that, your arrow is crooked
and cannot fly directly to its target.”^44
In these parts of the text, the author provides the dialogue with a
sense of reality by placing typical defamations in the mouth of his
protagonists. This sense of reality is interrupted by either the lengthy
and tiresome responses of the Sunni, or by the discursive nature of the
Jabrī’s statements. These text features make chapter 19 a typical didac-
tic piece. Therefore, this chapter cannot be considered a recording or
restoration of real life polemics.
2. A Three-Level Debate on jabr
Al-Rāzī’s argumentations for jabr, which form a part of his ground-
breaking theory of the human act, appear in several of his works,
including his Koran exegesis.^45 Al-Rāzī’s theory deals with the way,
43 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl, pp. 324–325; Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya,
Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl, 1903, pp. 142–143.
44 Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl, p. 319; Shifāʾ al-ʿalīl, 1903, p. 140.
45 The relevant texts on jabr by al-Rāzī are: al-Rāzī, al-Maṭālib al-ʿāliya, vol. 3,
p. 73, vol. 8, pp. 11–20, vol. 9, pp. 9–173; idem: Kitāb al-Arbaʿīn fī uṣūl al-dīn, ed.
by Aḥmad Ḥijāzī al-Saqā, Beirut 1424/2004, pp. 219–27; idem: Kitāb Maʿālim
uṣūl al-dīn, ed. by Samīḥ Dughaym, Beirut 1992, pp. 61–69; idem: Muḥaṣṣal
afkār al-mutaqaddimīn wal-mutaʾakhkhirīn min al-ʿulamāʾ wal-ḥukamāʾ wal-
mutakallimīn, ed. Samīḥ Dughaym, Beirut 1992, pp. 146–156; idem: al-Maḥṣūl
fī ʿilm uṣūl al-fiqh, 6 vols., ed. Jābir Fayyāḍ al-ʿAlwānī, Beirut 1412/1992, vol. 2,
p. 233. Sherman A. Jackson discussed the “preponderance without a prepon-
derator” argument, as it appears in al-Rāzī, al-Maḥṣūl, vol. 1, pp. 126–128;
Jackson, Sherman A.: The Alchemy of Domination? Some Asharite Responses
to Mutazilite Ethics, in: International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 31
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