ABSTRACT
I will be investigating the normative categories of ethical judgments in ‛Abd al-Jabbār’s thought and the grounds for these judgments in this chapter. light will be shed on his arguments against subjective theories of moral value and against ethical voluntarism or Divine Command Theory. Also a debate concerning the place of Divine Command Theory in Islamic ethics will be considered from different comparative perspectives. The meaning of the grammatical forms of language and their relation to morality will be given special attention, as ‛Abd al-Jabbār’s views concerning the language of morals established a hermeneutical approach that provided a linguistic basis for understanding moral obligations in Islamic ethics. The Mu‛tazilite interpretation of the story of Ibrāhīm will be considered and compared to similar stories that are sometimes quoted in support of ethical voluntarism in Christianity. An attempt will be made to interpret the nature of ‛Abd al-Jabbār’s ethical theory using his definitions of value terms and disclosing the meaning of ethical judgments, depending on ‛Abd al-Jabbār’s own definitions and arguments. The grounds of normative judgments will be fully investigated to determine the nature of value judgments in ‛Abd al-Jabbār’s ethical theory, to be followed by an investigation into the post-Mu‛tazilite perception of moral values and normative judgments and an interpretation of the place of Divine Command Theory in Islamic thought.
