luṭf

also lutf

Gratuitous divine help — beneficence creatures have no prior right to. In the Māturīdī frame, withholding luṭf is not injustice, because injustice requires violating a claim; the concept separates “not generous here” from “wrong”.

Arabic luṭf, “kindness, grace”.

Luṭf is gratuitous divine help — beneficence no creature has a claim to. In Muʿtazilī debate it was sometimes argued that God must extend luṭf; the Māturīdī frame denies the "must."

The load-bearing rule: injustice requires violating a claim. Since no creature has a prior right to luṭf, withholding it cannot be injustice. This is what lets the school say God may create or permit harm without wrongdoing — the no-prior-right rule does the work that a Western theodicy does with "gratuitous evil" language.

The limit is equally clear: the rule explains why withholding is permissible, not when wisdom chooses withholding over realization. It blocks a verdict of injustice without supplying a selection principle — which is why the victim-harm crux stays open rather than closed.

The mistaken everyday reading is "an arbitrary God who owes nothing." The point is juridical, not capricious: no claim, no injustice — whether wisdom has further criteria is a separate, harder question.

Where this comes up

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Atlas entries are written from sources Debby has read, not from memory. They explain a thing; they do not settle an argument. The arguments are in the Library.