ABSTRACT
‘Abd al-Jabbar's concept of the divine assistance, lutf, is explained in full in his encyclopaedic work al-Mughni. It is the concept which provides the link between God and humans in his theology and unveils God as al-latif, the compassionate One, who provides all kinds of guidance. The human ability to choose between good and evil proves God's punishment and reward to be based on justice. This chapter introduces ‘Abd al-Jabbar's concept of human beings as responsible for attaining knowledge of God and His divine law. It summarizes the epistemological theory of ‘Abd al-Jabbar in order to show how humans are able to reach knowledge about God. The chapter examines a second way of obtaining knowledge about God through revealed messages and shows how this can be related to rational human knowledge.
