The principle of justice (Adl) in the theology of Ibn al-Malāhimī

The greatest representative of Husayniyya, one of the two schools of the late Mutazila, after its founder Abū l-Husayn al-Basrī, is Ibn al-Malāhimī. The principle of justice, which is one of the basic principles of Mutazilī theology, expresses the relationship between Allah and the world in general. The topics covered within the scope of this principle are aimed at proving that God will never commit evil, that He will not violate what is obligatory for Him, and that all of Allah's actions are good. In this study, Ibn al-Malāhimī's views on the principle of justice in the kalam system are revealed by subjecting his kalam works to a detailed examination. Whereas the Bahshamī sources were referred to make comparisons, other Husaynī and Shīī-Mutazilī sources were used to help understand the subject. Ibn al-Malāhimī's views on ḥusn-qubḥ, God's relation with evil acts (qabīḥ), human actions, offer, grace (luṭf), the best interest of man (aṣlaḥ), pain and the divine compensation (ʿiważ) were compared with the Muʿtazilī tradition before him. Ibn al-Malāhimī differed from Bahshamiyya in his approach to some aspects of these issues. He argues, for example, that the will and motive is identical in terms of occurrence of the acts, that God is capable of doing evil acts (qabīḥ) even if it could not actually occur, that the knowledge of the human's being producer of his acts is a neccesary one, that the power (qudra) which produces the act is the special body (binya makhṣūṣa), that a single act could be subject to the power of two capable agents, that the powers are alike to each other (mutamāthil), that it is obligatory for God to perform/create the best in worldly matters, that it is possible for God to provide compensation (ʿiważ) as favour (tafaḍḍul), and that God provides the compensation for the pains which stem from non-rational beings such as children, mads and non-human earthly animals. In this context, the differences of the Husayniyya school, of which Ibn al-Malāhimī is a member, from Bahshamiyya, in the context of the idea of justice have also emerged. This study, besides revealing Ibn al-Malāhimī's idea of justice, also determines Husayniyya's views on justice through Ibn al-Malāhimī and the points where Bahshamiyya and Husayniyya differ in these issues. Therefore, this study presents important determinations about the content of the conflict in the late Mutazila.