Predetermination
Critic:-
One of the most disconcerting concepts in Quran is the concept of predetermination.
Comment:-
There is nothing disconcerting about it.
Everything has a cause and all causes according to Physics arise from the Big Bang. Therefore, even Science requires predetermination.
Critic:-
Upon this recognition depends our chance to enter the paradise. Failing to recognize Allah would bring eternal damnation and the hellfire. This is very important to God. He does not like to be ignored and has no mercy on those who do so.
Comment:-
This is nonsense.
God is wholly self-sufficient. It is necessary for man's spiritual welfare that he should recognize God. The Spirit of God is within man and that is what give him consciousness.
In any case if what you say is true then it would not help you to reject or ignore it. Your likes and dislikes are not relevant.
Critic:-
The problem is that being able to pass this test of faith and gaining the admittance to paradise is not in our hand. It is again God who chooses those whom He pleases to guide and to lead astray those whom He wants.
Comment:-
It is certainly true that God guides man. But He does so through the Spirit within us. We are required to do those things that will remove the obstructions within us.
Critic:-
The first question that comes to mind is "why"? Why should a loving God not guide his own children, or as Muslims put it slaves? Why should he leave them to themselves and then come upon them with such wrath filling the Hell with those whom he purposefully did not guide? This defies any logic.
Comment:-
What an arrogant question! You dare to question God or assume that your "logic" can judge God. Is it an intelligent thing not to make any efforts to understand?
Facts are facts. Do you question the events in Nature by your subjective standards? Will such judgements benefit you or make any difference to anything? Certainly God has sent Messengers to guide man and He also guides man through the spirit within, if they listen. But we all know that a great number of people do not. You think they should all go to heaven no matter whether or not they fulfill the function they were created for? Is this your idea of Justice?
Critic:-
In response Muslims say that we have free will to accept God or reject him. But this is not what the Quran is saying.
Comment:-
The Quranic verses affirm that all power belongs to God. Nothing can be done without power. Is it your contention that God is not omnipotent?
Critic:-
Some verses in Quran indicate that even if someone wants to be guided he cannot because God has sealed his heart.
"These it is whom Allah has cursed so He has made them deaf and blinded their eyes." 47:23
Comment:-
God has sealed the hearts of miscreants. The guidance of God can only be obtained by obeying God. That is, by using the techniques recommended by the Scriptures He sends.
Critic:-
This behaviour is not befitting of the creator of this universe.
Comment:-
You do not think this strange:- The creature judging the Creator! The Limited intelligence judging the Infinite. This kind of arrogance was embodied in Satan.
Critic:-
But then again the riddle becomes more confusing when in the next verse the responsibility is shifted on the people themselves who "lock" their own hearts!
"Do they not then earnestly seek to understand the Qur'an, or are their hearts locked up by them?" 47:24
Comment:-
If a person carries on doing what is harmful is he not inviting the consequences.
Suppose a doctor prescribes a medicine for an illness and the patient takes the medicine. Is there any difference between saying that the patient was cured because he took the medicine or that the Doctor cured him or that the medicine cured him, or that the laws and processes of the person's body cured him?
Now if you reverse this and the patient does not take the medicine. What is his punishment? Is it brought on by himself or by the doctor or the processes of nature?
Critic:-
"This is an admonition: whosoever will, let him take a path to his Lord. But ye will not, except as Allah wills ... He will admit to His mercy whom He wills. But the wrongdoers - for them has he prepared a grievous penalty." Quran 76:29-31
Comment:-
See above.
Critic:-
Muslims criticize the Christians for the irrationality of their belief in Trinity. However with some degree of imagination, one can make sense of this Christian dogma. Yet with no stretch of imagination one can make any sense of this puzzle.
Comment:-
That is your limitation.
The matter of predestination and God's omnipotence has been a matter of debate in Christianity for centuries.
The position of the Quran is very self-consistent. God has all the power. He works through laws as well as directly through what human beings might call "chance". The laws tell us that certain actions have certain consequences, some harmful and some beneficial to man. God has given human being certain instructions, which when carried out will have beneficial effects and lead to salvation. These instructions are also causes for action. Nothing can be done without power and we are told how to obtain such power.
As for Trinity. It is a man made doctrine not to be found in the teachings of Jesus and not even in the teachings of Paul. Both affirm that the Father is the only God and that the "Son" is a metaphor for those who are led by the Spirit. Neither the Son nor the Spirit can do anything by themselves but only that which the Father instructs. They are, therefore, not Gods.
Critic:-
On the other hand were the Qadrias and the Mutazilites who advocated the free will of man and, therefore, were rejected as heretics. They argued that man has got the absolute freedom of will and is responsible for his own actions. If not so, then rewards and punishments for virtuous acts and sins has no meaning. They quoted the verse (42:30) that says:
"And whatever affliction befalls on you, it is on account of what your hands have wrought."
Comment:-
These people were misled by Greek Philosophy and a faulty Logic, which always makes dichotomies. "Either this or that". The fact is that human beings cannot do anything for which ability has not been placed in man. Every action a person does has causes within him and consequences both in the external world with which he interacts and within himself. Actions modify the doers.
Critic:-
"Because Allah will never change the grace which He has bestowed on a people until they change what is in their (own) souls: and verily Allah is He Who hears and knows (all things)." (8.53)
"For each (such person) there are (angels) in succession, before and behind him: They guard him by command of Allah. Allah does not change a people's lot unless they change what is in their hearts. But when (once) Allah wills a people's punishment, there can be no turning it back, nor will they find, besides Him, any to protector." (13.11)
Those who strive in His path, are guided in the right path, while those who persist in denial and sinful living have their hearts sealed against faith (ii. 7, 26; iv. 155; v;.i. 102).
Most modern Muslims tend to side with the free will of man but their opinion is drastically in contrast with many verses of Quran that alarmingly maintain that Allah's decision are completely arbitrary.
Comment:-
You do not know "most modern Muslims". By "modern" you, no doubt, mean Westernized ones educated in western ideas.
Muslims who follow the Quran do not make such dichotomies.
Critic:-
"Allah blots out and establishes what He pleases." (3:39).
"Allah has power over all things." (3:159).
Many are the verses that confirm the idea of a despotic Allah who would not adhere to any norm of conduct and, therefore, his actions are whimsical and unpredictable.
Comment:-
That is a childish way of looking at things! Do you suppose that Nature and the Laws of the Universe are despotic? Is this attitude useful? Can you abolish these laws? Or do you have to accept them and adjust yourself to them - in short to Surrender (Islam)?
Or do you prefer to believe in a God who is not omnipotent? Will this preference do you any good? Would you rather live with your illusions?
Critic:-
What is unclear is how people could be accountable for their actions if it is Allah who has chosen not to guide them.
Comment:-
He does guide by sending Messengers and Scriptures and by having given them intelligence and the capacity to learn. The Quran also tells us that Allah has prescribed Mercy for Himself and that He is Oft-forgiving. He has told us about the conditions required to receive His guidance.
Critic:-
"Do ye desire to guide him whom Allah led astray? Whom Allah leads away, you will find no way for him." 4:88
"If Allah willed he would have made mankind one nation, but they continue in their differences, excepting those on whom your Lord has mercy. To that end, he created them and perfectly is fulfilled the word of your Lord: I shall assuredly fill Gehenna with jinns and men altogether." 11:118-119
Also 14:4, 35:8, 74:31, 6:149
Comment:-
All these confirm the Omnipotence of God. They indicate that we should get our power from God by obedience.
Critic:-
There are many Hadith that ratify the predestination. Sahih Muslim Book 32, Number 6392: Narrated Hudhayfah ibn Usayd tells us:
Allah's Apostle (peace_be_upon_him) said: When the drop of (semen) remains in the womb for forty or fifty (days) or forty nights, the angel comes and says: My Lord, will he be good or evil? And both these things would be written. Then the angel says: My Lord, would he be male or female? And both these things are written. And his deeds and actions, his death, his livelihood; these are also recorded. Then his document of destiny is rolled and there is no addition to and subtraction from it."
If every aspect of the life of an individual in predestined to such detail as it is given in the above Hadith, it is unclear where is the free will of man and why he should be punished?
Comment:-
Ask a scientist who believes in Cause and Effect where Free Will comes in.
The answer is that there is no free will. It there were it would be random, impulsive and without cause, reason or purpose. It would not help you in the least. The fact is that pain and pleasure, the memory of them and their causes are, in fact causes for our actions. As different causes have different effects then different actions lead to pain or pleasure, destruction or construction, deprivation or fulfillment. The Quran itself is a source of causes.
We believe that the Quran gives us the Truth and not what people wish to hear. Therefore, we try to understand what the Quran tells us. We do not judge the Quran by our own prejudices, limited intelligence or criteria conditioned into us accidentally by a particular society and culture. This would merely keep the individual in the position he was in before. The Quran came to create spiritual growth by its teachings and its instructions. The effort to understand it is itself mind expanding.
We, therefore, reject as silly, the criticisms made by people who have made no effort to understand or do not have the capacity to understand owing to prejudices, hostilities, lack of knowledge or intelligence, but are still arrogant.
Time may be regarded as a dimension, and is so regarded in Physics. This means that Allah can see the whole of it and all the causes and effects, particularly as it is He Who is their cause. But we cannot. For us things are indeterminate. We have alternatives. But whichever we choose the fact remains that it requires causes.
The confusion lies in mistaking human knowledge for Allah's knowledge.
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