Today we are going to discuss the free will or predestination. This issue played an important role in the debates of different schools of Islamic thought i.e. the Asharites, the Motazilites and the Imamiyah. It has been discussed widely in the books of tafseer, aqaed theology, and sometimes in discussing some jurisprudence issue with something about the accountability and are we really accountable for our deeds or is it written on us? We can't change it. It is not only for Muslims of course, all thinkers have touched upon this subject. Is there any free will or are we led to predestined things that we have no role in it?
Before we discuss that Islamically, let's quote Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his social contract which he says that the main difference between human beings and animals is free will, that animals are led to some sort of direction that they can't change, he said that their instinct is pushing them towards a particular action they go for. But human beings have free will; they weigh things and decide whether to go this way or that way. So according to Jean-Jacques Rousseau the main ability with human beings is this free will, this is one point regarding the issue of free will.
The other thing which is good to notice is that all legal systems are putting certain criminal law or something about how to punish or how to hold people accountable for their evil acts, breaking the law or those who transgress and the question is that if the criminals say that we are born like that, it is not our choice, it is in our blood so why do the legal systems hold someone accountable or imprison him or even sentence him to death as they did in the past? Now there is no capital punishment in many European countries but it was in the past. So why? Once I heard someone on TV when he was discussing the gay issue and homosexuality, he said that I was born like that. This is not a good excuse because if you can run away from anything which is in the legal system if it's forbidden or prohibited so why the whole purpose of the criminal law? Which means everybody can find this excuse "Sorry it wasn't me, it is my nature or I was born like that. It was written on my forehead" As some (lay or gay?) people say.
In the history of Muslim theologians Abul Huthayl Alallaf has a very nice word or comment on those who deny the free will and who support the predestination, he says that (حمار بشر اعقل من بشر ) or let's put it this way, that a donkey owned by a human is cleverer than its owner. Why? Because when you take a donkey to a large river and push the donkey to jump over that, the donkey will not. Even if you beat the donkey, he will not jump because the donkey knows that this far away from its ability. But if you take it to a very narrow and small river and he's able to cross then the donkey will do it. So the donkey can differentiate between what falls between its ability and what is beyond its ability. But the owner of the donkey cannot differentiate between what is falling beyond his ability and within his ability.
Let's deal with this in a very logical way, one very simple example that do we have voluntary actions and compulsory or not? This example will help us in answering this question. I'm sitting here, there is some food or fruit in front of me and it is obvious that I may extend my hand and take that food or stop doing so. The second stage is that I take it and put it in my mouth or not put it in my mouth, just hold it in my hand. In the third stage I can take the food and chew it or not to chew it. The fourth stage is after chewing it, I may decide to swallow it or just throw it away. But let's move to the fifth stage when it goes inside my stomach, I can't tell my stomach not to digest that food, and I can't tell the blood to take whatever needed for my muscles and organs and leave the other filthy things to pass through my system. Why? It is very clear that there are certain things which I can do, I can decide to move my hand but I can't order my heart to stop beating!
So there are actions which fall within my abilities, my decisions, my choices but some of them are not.
The other logical argument is that if, and this is in the books of theology mentioned in a wider understanding and discussion that if we lack the free will and it is predestined all the time, then what is the difference between people who are described to be good people, people virtue and the others who are sinful or they are disobeying Allah? What's the difference between (محسن ) and (مسيئ) ? Those who deserve to be rewarded and those who deserve or entitled to be punished? Because neither this nor that has done whatever is in the subject by their own will. It is written on them, so when the person is a good one that he behaves well and avoids all sins, it wasn't him according to predestination. And when the one who is doing wrong things, again it wasn't him. So why should we praise this person and say "Oh he's a very very nice man, he's a person of virtue and the other one is person of vice"?
And the last one what Allah subhannahu wa talaa in tens of ayat of the Quran mentions that (وَمَا رَبُّكَ بِظَلَّامٍ لِّلْعَبِيدِ) that Allah is not wronging His servants.
What injustice greater than Allah forcing me to do something wrong then punishing me for that wrong? So it is clear of course that this the summary of this discussion, there is a lot to be discussed and in our more advanced discussions of theology we discuss that in hundreds of pages the ayat which seem if someone reads them like that will think they are talking about predestination, but Imam Jaafar Assadiq (a.s.) made it clear that there is neither predestination nor we are left to do anything without Allah intervening in our actions, it is something in between (لا جبر ولاتفويض ، ولكن أمر بين أمرين) . So when someone is disabled and the doctor connects his for example hand to a machine and presses a button the person is able to move his hand. In this way when the good act is done by the person it is referred to the person himself and decision on one hand and to the doctor who tells him to move his hand. But when he does something wrong it is no one accountable or responsible for the wrongdoing other than himself.
In the last five lectures we tried to summarize and go quickly about the arguments with regard to the existence of God. The arguments are different methods helping us to be convinced that existence of God is a reality. First we spoke about the ontological argument which is to know the definition of existence itself and differentiate between the necessary existent and the possible existent and in the end we said that every possible existent must end up and beg and obtain that existence from the source and that is the necessary existent.
In a different approach we talked about the cosmological argument and that is to talk either about the causality and that every effect needs a cause and everything which did not exist then came into existence has a beginning. And anything which has a beginning needs a cause to bring it into existence and in this way we concluded that the whole universe, galaxies, everything surrounding us all one day did not exist then they came into existence anything like that needs something to bring them, we call that God or Allah almighty creator, the one who brought everything from nothingness into complete existence.
In the second approach of cosmological argument we spoke about the unmoved mover and we referred this to the Greek philosopher Aristotelian, of course many Muslim theologians and philosophers like Ibin Sina known in the West as Avicenna, like Farabi and some other philosophers, they quote the argument from Aristotle and modify it in a way to match the ayat from the Quran or the Ahadeeth of the Holy prophet and the Imams (a.s.).
In the third methodology we spoke about the teleological argument or from the design when we ended up with something very logical when there is a design there must be a designer. The whole world is full of incidents and evidences of design, a perfect design so there must be a perfect designer for them. There are many detailed discussions about every sign of this design within ourselves, around us, in the plants, in the animals, in the skies, the galaxies, in the atom and if you follow the notes at the Ahlulbayt TV site you will find examples of these in those notes inshAllah.
Having discussed these we ended up with something that knowing Allah subhanahu wa talaa is possible only through the divine attributes, the divine names and these divine attributes we talk about them in a way that we can't compare them to ours. The incomparability of the divine attributes. We did not agree with (معطلة ) who say that there is no way to know Allah and with the (مجسمة او مشبهة) the anthropomorphist because when we talk about anthropomorphism we mean that you refer those attributes which are suitable for us, you refer them to Allah subhanahu wa talaa which is impossible. There is a big difference between the limited entities and the unlimited being and that is the almighty Allah.
Then we tried to explore the different categories or classifications of the attributes once as called ((صفات ثبوتية and ( ( صفات سلبية the affirmative and privative attributes, what is the main point of them, summarizing the first in one and that is perfection and the latter which is imperfection, negating it from Allah.
We spoke about the issues of not being able to see Allah and those who claim that or interpret the aya ( وُجُوهٌ يَوْمَئِذ نَّاضِرَةٌ (22) إِلَى رَبِّهَا نَاظِرَةٌ) in a literal way, they are wrong because only the inner sight is able to see and feel the omnipresence of Allah not our physical sight because we are not made for that.
And after that we discussed the things which we see and they don't have reality but on the other hand there are things which do exist whilst we can't see them and again in the notes inshaAllah you will have the opportunity to look at the list of both of these examples there.
And the final remarks were about the free will and that Allah has given us the ability, the limbs, the brain, provided us with the tools but we are the ones who decide to use these tools in the right manner or the wrong way. So that's why we are held accountable for our deeds and inshaAllah when we talk about the day of judgement and accountability there we will see how this accountability works but here we conclude that it is wrong to say that everything is written on us because if we believe in that, first we are admitting that no legal system will work, no differentiation between those are people of virtue and people of vice and in the end in reality it means that Allah is unjust whilst the second principle of religion which is adopted by the Imamiyah and by the Motazilites is that Allah is just ((عدل. nbsp;
So far we covered the existence of God Tawheed and the justice of God Adil, and may Allah give us the tawfeeq to discuss the third principle of religion and that is Prophet hood. May Allah enable us to comprehend the aqeeda well to express it in the right way and to deal with it in the right manner.