Calvinistic theological determinism shares profound similarities with mainstream Islamic theology—specifically traditional Sunni Ash’arite and Maturidite schools—as both frameworks assert that God sovereignly decrees and causes every event in existence.
While both systems reject pure cosmic chance, they grapple with the same philosophical tension: balancing total divine sovereignty with human moral responsibility.
Key Theological Commonalties
- Absolute Divine Decree: Calvinism operates on the Decrees of God, meaning God ordained everything that will ever happen before creation. Similarly, Islam centers on Al-Qadar (Divine Will and Predestination), the belief that God has written everything in the Preserved Tablet (Al-Lawh Al-Mahfuz).
- Total Dependence for Actions: In Calvinism, human wills are bound by sin and require divine grace to choose good (Irresistible Grace). In Ash’arite Islamic theology, humans do not originate power; God creates the human action, and the human merely acquires or “appropriates” it (Kasb/Kasb doctrine).
- Unconditional Salvation: Calvinist Unconditional Election dictates that God chooses who is saved based solely on His sovereign will, not human merit. Mainstream Islamic theology similarly holds that entry into Paradise is ultimately a gift of God’s mercy and choice, not a mathematical right earned by human deeds.
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