a critique of fakhr al-din al-razi’s theory of “creation of acts” and its influence on his understanding of quranic verses

in this essay the most important arguments of fakhr al-din al-razi for the theory that all acts are created only by god (khalq al-amal) are investigated. in the course of this investigation each of his three arguments rejecting the necessity of free will and all his thirteen arguments for proving his theory of occasional cause (kasb) are refuted. subsequently, fakhr al-din al-razi’s interpretations of the quran which are under the influence of this theory are criticized. in order to accomplish this, all of the quranic verses, which as a result of this theory are interpreted by him in a way incongruous with their apparent meaning, are presented. his interpretations are evaluated taking into consideration other quranic verses, the apparent meaning of the verses at issue, and the circumstances of their revelation (asbab al-nuzul), and it is concluded that none of the interpretations of fakhr al-din al-razi which are based on the theory of the “creation of acts” are valid.