Pragmatic Arguments for Belief in the Qur’an
Abstract
This essay examines two sets of pragmatic arguments for belief in the Qur’an, both based on a system of divine accountability: in one the accounting occurs in afterlife, in the other it occurs in this life. In presenting the first argument, the Qur’an anticipates Pascal’s wager. This argument is later taken up by ‘Ali, Islam’s fourth rightly guided caliph, and al-Ghazali. It is shown that religions generally, and Islam in particular, establish the premises for enunciating Pascal’s wager.
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