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Paper short abstract

This article uses Sunni occasionalism to critique secular theory’s limits on the transcendent. Through a miracle, it explores ethical subjectivity, proposing the Islamic concept of “Kasb” (acquisition)—centred on intention and choice—as key to ethical agency.

Paper long abstract

This article attempts to take Islamic theology seriously - specifically the Sunni doctrine of Occasionalism - as a productive site for anthropological theory, not just ethnographic “data”. In doing so, it exposes the limitations of secular social theory in understanding the transcendent, particularly contemporary concerns with “everyday ethics” and the “problem of God” in the anthropology of Islam. Through the ethnographic event of a miracle (keramot), the article highlights heteronomous ethical subjectivities which are neither truly “free” nor over-determined. Accordingly, it introduces the Islamic concept of “Kasb” (acquisition) as the central pillar of ethical agency in its emphasis on intention and choice, over freedom and reason.