kasb

Kasb, from the Arabic root kasiba meaning “to acquire” or “to earn,” is a technical term in Islamic theology and jurisprudence. It refers to the manner in which human beings acquire or come to own their actions, particularly volitional acts such as speech, movement, and deeds, within the broader discussion of divine creation and human responsibility.

Historically, kasb emerged in the early Islamic theological debates over free will, predestination, and moral accountability. Classical Mu’tazilite thinkers argued that humans create their own actions (ikhtiyar), while many later Sunni theologians, especially within the Ash’arī and Māturīdī schools, developed the concept of kasb to reconcile divine omnipotence with human responsibility: God creates the action in a broad sense, but the agent acquires it through intention and effort. In this view, responsibility for good or bad deeds rests with the person, even though God remains the ultimate source of all that occurs.

The kasb theory distinguishes between God’s creation and the human acquisition of action, emphasizing that intention, deliberation, and effort are the basis on which accountability is assigned. Differences exist among scholars regarding the precise scope and mechanism of kasb, but the general aim is to explain how humans can be praised or blamed for actions while maintaining the belief in God’s sovereign creation.

Today, kasb remains a key concept in classical Islamic theology and is studied to understand debates on free will, moral accountability, and divine justice.