The discussions of the consept of acquisition in Mu'tazila and Asharities: The case of Qādî Abdulcabbâr and Abu'l-Qāsim al-Ansârî

The problem of human actions is one of the main topics in Kalam, on which strong debates were made by Muslim scholars from both earlier and later periods. The starting point of these debates seems to be the question "Are the voluntary actions of human-beings created by Allah?" Different answers, both positive and negative, have been given to this question by the Kalam scholars, depending on their concept of God. One group of scholars consider the human-beings as the sole inventor (mujid) and creator (hāliq/muhdis) of their own actions and therefore argue that Allah does not create the actions of human-beings. As for the second group, there are two different arguments. According to one, Allah is the sole creator of the human actions, so these actions cannot be referred to humans in any way, whereas for the other the human actions are created by Allah, yet it is possible to refer these to humans. Scholars who support this second argument use the Qur'anic term kasb (acquisition) in their arguments. The concept of kasb, which was first used by Abu Hanifa (d. 150/767) and Dirar b. Amr (d. 200/815), has been developed by Abu Hasan al-Ash'arī and his companions and evolved into a theory. In this process, the first group of scholars, mostly from the Mu'tazila school, who consider the human-beings as the sole creator of their own actions, carried out systematic criticism against the theory of kasb. In this study we aim to discuss the concept of kasb from both points of views, with reference to the views of Abu Qasim al-Ansari from the Ash'ariyya school and Qadi Abd al-Jabbar from the Mu'tazila school. Keywords: Qadi Abd al-Jabbar, Abu Qasim al-Ansari, Mu'tazila, Ashariyya, Acquisition (Kasb), Intention (Irada), Power (Qudrah).