Divine Love, Justice, and Moral Evaluation in the Qur’an and the Bible: A Textual Assessment of William Lane Craig’s Criterion

William Lane Craig has argued that the Qur’anic conception of God is morally deficient because it lacks universal and unconditional love, which he regards as an essential attribute of a morally perfect being. On this basis, he concludes that Allah, as portrayed in the Qur’an, cannot be identified with the God of biblical Christianity. This article critically examines that claim through a comparative textual analysis of the Qur’an, the Old Testament, and the New Testament. This study engages philosophical theology through a textually grounded approach, evaluating Craig’s criterion of divine love by analysing how love, mercy, justice, and moral differentiation are articulated within the scriptural texts themselves. It argues that the Qur’an presents divine love as a relational and morally evaluative affirmation, while divine mercy, grace, and beneficence extend broadly to all creation, including unbelievers. The article further demonstrates that this moral structure closely parallels the Old Testament depiction of God, where divine love is covenantal and evaluative and divine judgement is explicitly affirmed. Even within the New Testament, divine love consistently coexists with judgement, accountability, and conditionality. The study concludes that unconditional universal love cannot serve as a decisive theological criterion for assessing divine moral perfection, and that the Qur’anic conception of Allah remains compatible with biblical monotheism when evaluated on shared scriptural grounds.