Kasb
The classical Ashʿarī account of human action: God creates the act; the creature “acquires” it. Steelmanned here as concurrentism, not crude determinism. Compared with Māturīdī ikhtiyār and Orthodox synergy, the comparative tag on decree-plus-responsibility is symmetric cost.
Arabic kasb, “acquisition”.
Kasb, "acquisition," is the Ashʿarī account of how a human act can be both created by God and attributed to the creature. God creates the act; the servant acquires it. It is the school's way of keeping divine omnipotence without simply erasing responsibility.
OTC-022 steels it, with Māturīdī ikhtiyār concurrentism, against Orthodox synergy. The founder's hypothesis that "Muslims have a harder time because determinism fails" fails as framed: Islam is not one determinism, and compatibilism is not globally debunked. Comparative tag: symmetric cost, especially versus the Māturīdī account. Classical kasb pays a sharper internal cost on creaturely causal efficacy — texture, not a win.
The mistaken everyday reading is "puppets" or "they don't believe in free will." That is the straw man this packet exists to block.
Where this comes up
Sources
- Debby packet OTC-022 (free will / theosis vs rival responsibility)