Whether a man is dependent of his actions or not is a debate that has been going on in the circles of religious philosophy and theistic arguments for centuries. Numerous people including laymen and well-known scholars alike have argued regarding how free is man in making his choices and how much influence God has upon these decisions.
All philosophic systems that consider God as the Supreme in charge of all affairs believe in Destiny. We have traditions and verses which maintain that everything is pre-ordained. Whatever is going to happen and whatever we will do is all known to the Lord and is recorded in Loh-e-Mahfooz. So if destiny is a truth then why is man responsible for his good and bad deeds ? If man's deeds are pre-ordained then why is he answerable for them ? Since a person can only be held responsible for what he does when he has independence of making his choices.
Today's debate will decide whether man is dependent or independent. If we say man is dependent then God will be a party in man's sins. If we say man is independent then destiny is nullified and hence the knowledge of God regarding future.
Various traditions from Masumeen alaihesalam and teachings of well-known scholars hold that man is neither granted full control of his actions and neither is he granted complete freedom regarding affairs of life. Thus most people, in the light of these teachings think that man is partly dependent and partly independent in making choices. But such a concept is also mislead since it implies that God is partly involved in the sins of man and thus subject to punishment - and since God is the stronger companion in the act of sin therefore He must deserve severer punishment. Where this conclusion is against the Justice and Grace of God, this is wrong and illogical at the same time. As we will illustrate, the actual situation is quite different than this.
The fact is that all animate and inanimate creatures present in the universe are all bound by laws of nature and act according to the will of God except human. Humans are an exception; they have been given the freedom of choice as far as their actions are concerned. A man is fully responsible in making choices regarding his actions and is thus fully responsible for all his deeds. The question is that if this is true than how to explain and justify the concept of destiny and Knowledge of God regarding future ?
To understand this we take the example of a computer program. Those who have some basic knowledge about computer languages(such as Gwbasic, Java, C++) and programs written in these languages can understand the case of 'choice and dependence' very clearly through this example. Using a computer language a specific program can be made where users of the program can input their information or choose from given choices or options. Lets say there's a program that upon running prompts the user to select from certain given options say A, B, C and D. The program has been instructed in such a way that the result of choosing A is 1, B is 2, C is 3 and D is 4. Now, when the program is executed a user has full freedom of choice in choosing either alphabet - this explains their independence. But the users are bound in a way that they cannot choose anything apart from the given four alphabets - this explains their dependence. Now if the user chooses an alphabet say C, he will get 3 as a result on the screen just as it was saved and instructed in the program - this explains the pre-destined and pre-ordained nature of things. The programmer being the writer of the program can predict the results of the program. (Though he cannot predict what the user will choose, this will be discussed in later paragraphs).
So in this way a user has freedom of choice in:
- choosing an option
- exiting the program
Therefore a person has freedom in his life to choose the ways of his life and do as he please or to end his life altogether.
Yet the user is bound due to:
- limited options
- obligation of participating in the program
This means that even though man has freedom to choose, yet there are a number of things that are beyond his reach and he is unable to do a number of things due to his inability.. since he is not the one who designed the program of this world, he is bound in some ways to live according to the laws of this world as designed by the Grand Architect.
From above example, destiny can be defined as:
- The grand program of the universe which contains all the information regarding its execution, users, available options and their possible outcomes. The example of computer program given here is obviously a very simple one, when it comes to the level of Universe and its laws, the program that God has designed is unbelievably complex and complicated with billions of options, clauses, conditions, factors, profiles and outcomes, all perfectly synchronized and laced with intricate details.
The point that we failed to illustrate through this example is regarding the Knowledge of God concerning the choice of man; which option out of the four will the man choose? Because even though the programmer can predict possible outcomes yet he cannot predict exactly what option will a user choose.
This Divine Knowledge of God can be proved in two ways, one way is through simple human observation and the other through the unique attribute of God being Non-temporal.
Simple human observation:
Considering the observational and instinctual talent of man, it does not appear to be a big deal that God can know the choice of man before he makes it, because a lot of times even humans can predict what another human will choose - even though they can be wrong, yet this isn't something so hard to know. Most psychologists and people that study human behaviour can easily predict how a certain person will react in a given situation. A teacher can predict how his students will perform in an exam and a mother can tell what his kids will prefer or adopt in life. But all of them being humans are prone to erroneous judgements. Yet if a human with very tiny intelligence can predict behaviours then it is a piece of cake for God whose Knowledge and Intelligence is thousand times greater than our's. Whose Sight and Hearing reaches far beyond our's, Who is capable to witness all kinds of rays, waves, radiations, energies, mental frequencies and neural synapses.. so what big deal it is for Him?
However, even though the above explanation is sufficient to have an idea of God's Knowledge of the Unseen, yet it is not what most traditions talk about, and this is not the way how God finds out what we'll do next. Because as is obvious this is a very superficial way of knowing things that suits humans more than it suits the Lord. Also since most traditions maintain that God knew a man's destiny from the beginning of time, that is even before he was brought into existence God knew what kind of a person will he be and what kind of life will he pass and what will be his ultimate end, therefore in order to understand the Knowledge of God in the light of this Eternal Knowledge we will have to ponder over God's Eternal Nature.
God's Timelessness:
God is the sole Creator of everything - including Time. His Being is Eternal because He is not subjected to Time; He has no beginning or end. He created matter and expanded it, thus He brought space and time into existence.
Due to this attribute of God, He Himself is not subjected to time and is therefore not subjected to any wait, means that he doesn't have to travel in time to see what happens next. He can see the past, present and future simultaneously. The notion of past, present and future are concepts that relate to temporal entities like us. When we watch a movie, we watch it from beginning to end, frame by frame in chronological order to know the story and to see what happens next. But imagine a Being that can watch all of the frames simultaneously, without having to wait for climax to know the end of the story. God is such a timeless entity. Similarly, a computer program when it is run, it moves through time but to the programmer it is predictable even before it begins since all possible and impossible moves have already been determined by the algorithm - and this is precisely the reason his frame of time does not need to match your frame of time, in fact, he can thought to be present at every instance from the program's beginning to its end because his knowledge and creation encompasses the program. It may be complex to understand at first, since no parable can be set for explaining God, yet if we try to comprehend the fact that our example is talking about a mere human who used many external factors to write a program and that God does not do this - He is the sole source of power for the system while simultaneously the source of all Knowledge and that His Will is the Algorithm and it is His Grandeur & Beauty, His Very Existence which makes everything possible and intertwined in a way that all things start from Him and connect back to Him... than we may get a little bit close to understanding the whole conundrum here. Hopefully.
Moving towards a lighter conclusion and coming back to the original point: The movie of this universe which started from the Big Bang (as far as we know) which caused a chain reaction that is still continual and will someday come to an end and collapse - is viewable to Allah all at once. To Him all the events that have occurred and will occur in time are visible on one screen. This movie is like a computer program that was executed by Allah billions of years ago, we are the users of this program and have been given the freedom of choice with certain limitations, whatever choices we make and their relevant results have always been known to Allah due to His Omnipresent and Omniscient nature, yet this knowledge does not imply His involvement in our decisions; the nature of this movie is not the one that is written and directed but it is more like a video obtained from a surveillance camera: people that appear in it are not bound to speak or act in a pre-destined way but are free people being watched and judged.
All praise is due to Allah, the Unique and Incomparable, the one Who is Ahad and Samad.
All philosophic systems that consider God as the Supreme in charge of all affairs believe in Destiny. We have traditions and verses which maintain that everything is pre-ordained. Whatever is going to happen and whatever we will do is all known to the Lord and is recorded in Loh-e-Mahfooz. So if destiny is a truth then why is man responsible for his good and bad deeds ? If man's deeds are pre-ordained then why is he answerable for them ? Since a person can only be held responsible for what he does when he has independence of making his choices.
Today's debate will decide whether man is dependent or independent. If we say man is dependent then God will be a party in man's sins. If we say man is independent then destiny is nullified and hence the knowledge of God regarding future.
Various traditions from Masumeen alaihesalam and teachings of well-known scholars hold that man is neither granted full control of his actions and neither is he granted complete freedom regarding affairs of life. Thus most people, in the light of these teachings think that man is partly dependent and partly independent in making choices. But such a concept is also mislead since it implies that God is partly involved in the sins of man and thus subject to punishment - and since God is the stronger companion in the act of sin therefore He must deserve severer punishment. Where this conclusion is against the Justice and Grace of God, this is wrong and illogical at the same time. As we will illustrate, the actual situation is quite different than this.
The fact is that all animate and inanimate creatures present in the universe are all bound by laws of nature and act according to the will of God except human. Humans are an exception; they have been given the freedom of choice as far as their actions are concerned. A man is fully responsible in making choices regarding his actions and is thus fully responsible for all his deeds. The question is that if this is true than how to explain and justify the concept of destiny and Knowledge of God regarding future ?
To understand this we take the example of a computer program. Those who have some basic knowledge about computer languages(such as Gwbasic, Java, C++) and programs written in these languages can understand the case of 'choice and dependence' very clearly through this example. Using a computer language a specific program can be made where users of the program can input their information or choose from given choices or options. Lets say there's a program that upon running prompts the user to select from certain given options say A, B, C and D. The program has been instructed in such a way that the result of choosing A is 1, B is 2, C is 3 and D is 4. Now, when the program is executed a user has full freedom of choice in choosing either alphabet - this explains their independence. But the users are bound in a way that they cannot choose anything apart from the given four alphabets - this explains their dependence. Now if the user chooses an alphabet say C, he will get 3 as a result on the screen just as it was saved and instructed in the program - this explains the pre-destined and pre-ordained nature of things. The programmer being the writer of the program can predict the results of the program. (Though he cannot predict what the user will choose, this will be discussed in later paragraphs).So in this way a user has freedom of choice in:
- choosing an option
- exiting the program
Therefore a person has freedom in his life to choose the ways of his life and do as he please or to end his life altogether.
Yet the user is bound due to:
- limited options
- obligation of participating in the program
This means that even though man has freedom to choose, yet there are a number of things that are beyond his reach and he is unable to do a number of things due to his inability.. since he is not the one who designed the program of this world, he is bound in some ways to live according to the laws of this world as designed by the Grand Architect.
From above example, destiny can be defined as:
- The grand program of the universe which contains all the information regarding its execution, users, available options and their possible outcomes. The example of computer program given here is obviously a very simple one, when it comes to the level of Universe and its laws, the program that God has designed is unbelievably complex and complicated with billions of options, clauses, conditions, factors, profiles and outcomes, all perfectly synchronized and laced with intricate details.
The point that we failed to illustrate through this example is regarding the Knowledge of God concerning the choice of man; which option out of the four will the man choose? Because even though the programmer can predict possible outcomes yet he cannot predict exactly what option will a user choose.
This Divine Knowledge of God can be proved in two ways, one way is through simple human observation and the other through the unique attribute of God being Non-temporal.
Simple human observation:
Considering the observational and instinctual talent of man, it does not appear to be a big deal that God can know the choice of man before he makes it, because a lot of times even humans can predict what another human will choose - even though they can be wrong, yet this isn't something so hard to know. Most psychologists and people that study human behaviour can easily predict how a certain person will react in a given situation. A teacher can predict how his students will perform in an exam and a mother can tell what his kids will prefer or adopt in life. But all of them being humans are prone to erroneous judgements. Yet if a human with very tiny intelligence can predict behaviours then it is a piece of cake for God whose Knowledge and Intelligence is thousand times greater than our's. Whose Sight and Hearing reaches far beyond our's, Who is capable to witness all kinds of rays, waves, radiations, energies, mental frequencies and neural synapses.. so what big deal it is for Him?
However, even though the above explanation is sufficient to have an idea of God's Knowledge of the Unseen, yet it is not what most traditions talk about, and this is not the way how God finds out what we'll do next. Because as is obvious this is a very superficial way of knowing things that suits humans more than it suits the Lord. Also since most traditions maintain that God knew a man's destiny from the beginning of time, that is even before he was brought into existence God knew what kind of a person will he be and what kind of life will he pass and what will be his ultimate end, therefore in order to understand the Knowledge of God in the light of this Eternal Knowledge we will have to ponder over God's Eternal Nature.
God's Timelessness:
God is the sole Creator of everything - including Time. His Being is Eternal because He is not subjected to Time; He has no beginning or end. He created matter and expanded it, thus He brought space and time into existence.
Due to this attribute of God, He Himself is not subjected to time and is therefore not subjected to any wait, means that he doesn't have to travel in time to see what happens next. He can see the past, present and future simultaneously. The notion of past, present and future are concepts that relate to temporal entities like us. When we watch a movie, we watch it from beginning to end, frame by frame in chronological order to know the story and to see what happens next. But imagine a Being that can watch all of the frames simultaneously, without having to wait for climax to know the end of the story. God is such a timeless entity. Similarly, a computer program when it is run, it moves through time but to the programmer it is predictable even before it begins since all possible and impossible moves have already been determined by the algorithm - and this is precisely the reason his frame of time does not need to match your frame of time, in fact, he can thought to be present at every instance from the program's beginning to its end because his knowledge and creation encompasses the program. It may be complex to understand at first, since no parable can be set for explaining God, yet if we try to comprehend the fact that our example is talking about a mere human who used many external factors to write a program and that God does not do this - He is the sole source of power for the system while simultaneously the source of all Knowledge and that His Will is the Algorithm and it is His Grandeur & Beauty, His Very Existence which makes everything possible and intertwined in a way that all things start from Him and connect back to Him... than we may get a little bit close to understanding the whole conundrum here. Hopefully.
Moving towards a lighter conclusion and coming back to the original point: The movie of this universe which started from the Big Bang (as far as we know) which caused a chain reaction that is still continual and will someday come to an end and collapse - is viewable to Allah all at once. To Him all the events that have occurred and will occur in time are visible on one screen. This movie is like a computer program that was executed by Allah billions of years ago, we are the users of this program and have been given the freedom of choice with certain limitations, whatever choices we make and their relevant results have always been known to Allah due to His Omnipresent and Omniscient nature, yet this knowledge does not imply His involvement in our decisions; the nature of this movie is not the one that is written and directed but it is more like a video obtained from a surveillance camera: people that appear in it are not bound to speak or act in a pre-destined way but are free people being watched and judged.All praise is due to Allah, the Unique and Incomparable, the one Who is Ahad and Samad.
mashaAllah very well written diyaa as always :) what a beautiful combination of philosophy , psychology, Computer Programming & religion!
ReplyDeletewould like to add little, i have been curious to know about the extent of man, in qaza & qadar, how far he is free and how far is destiny, and after the logical settlement that man is actually in between qaza & qadr , it is a very genuine question that can arise in anyone's mind
and then the saying of Imam Jafir Sadiq as solved my confusion...Man is free in all his actions, about which God will ask him on the day of judgement!
how beautifully it simplifies the complex concept na :) loved it, so thought to share
Thanks, Zahra, right ??
ReplyDelete