Published by The concept of predestination, agency, the right to choose and the role of an almighty personage to both direct and control the events surrounding ones life was certainly not first grappled by the Islamic faith. There comes an inherent paradox between creating a omnipotent judge, who “…knoweth whatever there is on the earth and in the sea. Not a leaf doth fall but with His knowledge” (Sura 6:59); who sees and knows all things, and yet gives us agency to choose for ourself.
Is it possible for one to truly choose if his choice is already known? Are we circumscribed by a predestination written by the almighty? If this was the case, what is the purpose of life, if but to live as puppets in a play all working towards the dramatic finale scripted by an omniscient hand; how can we be judged if we had no choice?
Perhaps the first key in understanding this paradox in Islam, as well as in most religion, is understanding how the power of Allah manifests itself. Particularly, first: what does it mean for Allah to know all things, second: in the way in which Allah intervenes with the course of events, and thirdly: in what way do these powers effect the common man.
There is a fundamental flaw in the common perception of what it means to know. Many people do not immediately understand the difference between “knowing” a thing and “causing”. This is the crux of the predestination v. free will conflict. Simply stating that Allah knows all things, does not mean he causes them to happen, and therefore it is possible for him to both know the outcome of an event and not have caused it to be. For a current day example: it is safe to assume that the professor of my Islam class knew that many peers of mine would wait until the last minute to write their papers.
This knowledge, however, had no bearing on whether or not a student chose to wait for the last minute to write his or her paper. In fact, it was not made truth until a student chose of his or her own free will to procrastinate. Could one blame the professor for predetermining the fates of his students, by foreseeing that some would not work on the essay until the last minute?
As the professor in this example knows the nature of students well enough to know that some will procrastinate with some degree of certainty, it must then also be considered that Allah knows the nature humanity on such a fundamental level that he can also know with a perfect certainty all that will come to pass. In fact, the Quran states that our very souls are the result of the breath of Allah himself (Sura 32:9). If this were the case, who would know us better than Him.
When the Quran tells us that Allah already has all the deeds we will perform in our life (57:22) it can be that Allah with a perfect understanding of the universe has a perfect understanding of our actions as they will come to pass. This is not so much predestination in the sense that Allah has written out what we will do, but more a sense of Allah knowing us on such a personal level that he already knows what we will do. So in essence predestination in terms of a perfect being such as Allah is a completely different concept when applied to human understanding.
Our actions are known to Allah, but only because he knows the nature of our souls. Because we do not have this perfect understanding predestination doesn’t apply, we still must make our own choices because we don’t understand all things.
The concept of predestination does not take the duty off our shoulders, nor does it make it easy. The idea often misleads people into thinking that we must simply resign ourselves to our fate. Your choices are already known to Allah, but not to you. And in this sense you have perfect free will to do as you please. But the actions you take are a direct result of you who you are (as opposed to a more intuitive understanding what you do defines who you are). So you can consider your action a result of your soul, and not your soul a result of your actions (this actually makes more intuitive sense), and so Allah with a perfect knowledge of your soul, therefore must also have a perfect knowledge of your future actions.
If we truly wish to come to terms with this then it becomes necessary to step away from our worldly understanding of justice, and realize that while this absolute power may seem extreme and unfair – that in assuming that Allah exists as stated in the Quran, that we must also believe that with his infinite power comes infinite wisdom; and through this infinite justice. The phrase “absolute power corrupts absolutely” may not apply to Allah, who is by no stretch of the imagination necessarily subject to adages constructed for humanity, and in this we can reconcile that our concept of what is “fair” and “unfair” applies only to our mortal understanding of the world. “Then what can, after this, contradict thee, as to the judgment (to come)? Is not Allah the wisest of judges?” (Sura 95:7-8).
The contradiction then, comes not in the texts of the Quran, but in the attempt to rationalize and temporalize a matter of faith. When one begins with the assumption that there is a being with a perfect understanding of all things, then anything can be explained through cyclic logic. Since a being with perfect understanding and mercy will judge us, doesn’t it follow that his judgment is perfect?
You cannot scholarly define the nature of God, for we have a limited understanding, while his is a perfect one: “Lo! Allah is the Knower of the Unseen of the heavens and the earth. Lo! He is Aware of the secret of (men’s) breasts.“ (Sura 35:38). Just as it is impossible to rationalize a three-dimensional operation in only two dimensions. Similarly, it is impossible to discuss the nature of a God in context of human understanding.
So do we have free will in Islam? The answer is throughout the Quran: yes. But it also says Allah has power over us, that all things are known to him. We can answer that Allah will judge us perfectly, through the belief that Allah himself is the most merciful and wise (24.5), and therefore we must also then believe that if he says we have free will, but does exercise his right to change our will – that there cannot be a contradiction through the wisdom and mercy of Allah.
And so, if you choose to believe in Islam then the answer resolves itself through the belief in his complete and total understanding of your character, and you must then act accordingly to your true self. Since you do not have a perfect knowledge as Allah does, even of yourself, you must make choices that coincide with righteousness. If you follow this path, then it will be proof that you are a righteous, you must “stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against yourselves,” (4.135).
If you choose not to believe than the contradiction is moot, as you do not believe in any of it’s premises. It stands as a testament to the author of the texts (Allah or the Prophet Mohamed) to make the text itself neither a logic proof nor disproof of Allah and Islam. It remains unquestionably an issue of pure faith.
