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| Do we choose our own destiny of are we merely characters in a play?
Wed 14 Apr 2004
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| `This belief clearly beckons the question at hand: if God already knows what is to happen, then how can we have free will? How can we choose our own destiny? Are we merely actors in a play? Has our end already been decided? Has God created us as characters? For surely He knows all our characteristics and personalities, just as a writer knows about the characters he has imagined for his play.' |
In Islam, it is a fundamental tenet of our belief that all people have been given free will to choose between the paths of right and wrong. Sometimes we stumble between the two, but eventually the true nature of our intentions will dominate and by the time of our death it will be quite clear, to ourselves at least, which path we have chosen.
This belief furthers into the belief that God, as the Divine, knows which path each and everyone is to choose and how we will stumble or walk upon that path, even before we have learnt how to walk!
This belief clearly beckons the question at hand: if God already knows what is to happen, then how can we have free will? How can we choose our own destiny? Are we merely actors in a play? Has our end already been decided? Has God created us as characters? For surely He knows all our characteristics and personalities, just as a writer knows about the characters he has imagined for his play.
But the thing which strikes me about these arguments is that they are too logical or, rather, they are void of any adequate logic. These are perfectly logical and reasonable questions if we are thinking of a person writing a play. The problem with these arguments however is that these suppose God as just that, as a person.
God is not a person; He is the Real the cause which was not caused. To think of God as a person defies logic and so these arguments are not applicable.
In my attempt to answer those less convinced by the general thrust of the above argument, I use an analogy which makes clear that free will and the ability to choose our own destiny are mutually exclusive to the belief that our end is already determined.
I try to explain this by saying that, if someone were to invent a time-machine and travel to the future to examine in the fate of their best friend say, they would find out what would become of their best friend and how the end was reached. However, his knowledge of the events has not marred his friend's free will or his ability to choose his destiny. He has not been barred in anyway into choosing a fixed route; it is just that now, his time-traveller friend knows which route he will take.
Though to Muslims this explanation often holds little weight, as God the Exalted, has no need to travel back and forth in time machines in order to know about the fates of those He has created, it at least provides a way in which to see that these two ideas are mutually exclusive, and one is not invalidated by the existence of the other. Free will and the ability to choose our own destiny and God's knowledge of our ends are capable of existing simultaneously.
When examining the question in the context of Islam, we can presume that it all comes down to a matter of faith. If we have enough faith to believe God's promise of free will, you will try to form your own destiny. If, however, we lack faith, we will most likely let life pass by and not take the opportunities on offer, preferring
`destiny comes to you; you do not go to destiny.'
Well, it all depends on faith do we have enough?
Ayesha Khan
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| The following are comments: |
Asalam O alaikum there! I have read the article and it reminds me about something that I read once in a book on Islamic Mysticism. It had a chapter of Free will. A famous incident is quoted in it. I would like to share it with all you people out there. Once a young unmarried man came to his spiritual teacher and asked about advice on who to marry? The teacher said it has already been decided by God. At this point the young man said "what about free will?" His spiritual teacher said, ok I will write a name on a piece of paper, you go ahead and marry anyone you like. In the meanwhile that piece of paper will be sealed in an envelop and will be opened on the day of your marriage. Well the young man agreed and the sealed envelope was given to the young man. After three weeks the young man had chosen the girl he wanted to marry. On the day of the marriage, the sealed envelope was opened in the presence of all , and the name written therein was anounced, and lo and behold, it was the name of the girl, that young man was to marry that very same day! This is the only difference between free will and destiny. Its all about controlling the available options, and not the chosen option. For example it is written in that book (which is in Urdu) that if you are travelling and you come accross a crossroad, and you dont know which way to go, then all the available routes are there for your selection. They are within the range of free will that you have. Once you choose a road and start travelling on it, that road is your destiny. Furthermore in another example it is written that a crow will be born with the destiny of a crow, and a leopard with the destiny of a leopard. A crow cannot become a leopard and vice versa. Similarly different human beings although have the same rights and privelidges but they have different capabilities. They can enhance and modify their natures by hard work, but they cannot change them altogether. This is the limited free will that we have. We have two hands, we can do whatever we want to do with these two hands but we cant have more than two. This is the limited free will and profound all encompassing destiny that is there all around us. That is why Islam means submission to the Divine will of God. Please note that these examples have been taken from the books of one of the most famous religious scholar and spiritual teacher in Pakistan Hazrat Wasif Ali Wasif. Some of them can be accessed at the website www.wasifaliwasif.com Thanks.
Muhammad Arsalan
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