Predestination or Free Will ?

This was mentioned in the Philosophy Club today.

A few thoughts...

If God did create or ordain our actions, then we would not have free will, and it would not be just to hold us accountable on the Day of Judgment. Likewise, it would not be just if it were ordained at our creation that we would end up in Paradise or Hell, no matter what our choices turned to be.

But one of the names or attributes of God is al-`Adl, The Just. He cannot and does not do anything unjust. Therefore we must reject the doctrine of pre-destination.

So do we have a total free will?

We cannot choose when we are born, to which parents, nor when we are going to die, whether we are born into a rich or poor family, or what sex we are born into.

But after that we can choose how to act, what moral code we abide by, what social and political responsibilities we fulfill or ignore .

There is a hadith (tradition of Prophet Muhammad) on this subject that describes this. It was narrated by his companion `Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) as follows:

Allah’s messenger (peace and blessings be upon him), the truthful and truly-inspired, said:

“Each one of you was collected within the womb of his mother for forty days, and then turns into a clot [or something that clings] for an equal period [of forty days] and turns into a piece of flesh for a similar period [of forty days] and then Allah sends an angel and orders him to write four things, i.e., his provision, his age [at death], and whether he will be of the wretched or the blessed [in the Hereafter].

Then the soul is breathed into him. And by Allah, a person among you [or a man] may do deeds of the people of the Hellfire till there is only a cubit or an arm-breadth distance between him and the Hellfire, but then that writing [which Allah has ordered the angel to write] precedes, and then he does the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters it; and a man may do the deeds of the people of Paradise till there is only a cubit or two between him and Paradise, and then that writing precedes and he does the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it.” (Reported by Bukhari.)

Most people, when they read this, think that it means that when the angel writes these four things, God is commanding these things to happen. However, scholars explain that while this is true for one’s age and provision - at least at birth - the angel is recording something that will happen, but that record does not ‘make’ it happen.

It simply reflects a conception of time and knowledge of Allah beyond time and space. We have to always remember that God is never limited by the boundaries of time and space. He gives us free will, but He knows beforehand — even before we were created — what our choices and their consequences will be.

Further reading...

Also here...