possible worlds and divine justice and mercy

This paper intends to address the problem of evil as it appears to exist within a specifically islamic framework, taking into account the central doctrines of the three main schools of muslim theology: the mu‘tazila, asha‘ira, and maturidiyya. the main problem appears to be whether god can and will resolve all the disbalances in justice and goodness in the afterlife, given that the hoped-for realization of justice does not occur in this worldly life. here, a possible world semantics appears necessary to explore how justice and goodness can be realized. we will base our presentation on theories of possible worlds and transworld significance as presented by saul kripke and w.l. craig alongside theories of divine justice in abū mansūr al-māturīdī (d. 333/944), al-shaykh al-mufīd (d. 413/1022), qādī abd al-jabbār (d. 415/1025), and abū hāmid al-ghazālī (d. 505/1111). it is generally held that people are awarded according to their intentions. however, there are many different possible lives that a person could have lived based on different possibilities of social and economic background, physical and intellectual abilities, education, and life experiences. given these variables, each person could have lived many, perhaps countless, different lives to the one that they did, actually, live, each with its particular accumulation of good and bad deeds and intentions. there does not appear to be an answer to explain the divine choice for the realization of one from the infinite number of possible lives that would make it anything other than a form of religious luck rather than justice. if, alternatively, god must judge us based on all possible lives, this seems impossible due to the near-infinite number of ramifications they will entail. based on this observation and the fact that the human condition in this world appears to make conflict of all kinds inevitable and the avenues of religious and moral success difficult, this paper will offer the answer that divine forgiveness and mercy will abound to radical degrees such that the expectation for justice is encompassed and transcended in god’s boundless grace.