[Assam] “WE WILL REMOVE THIS SITE IF PROVEN WRONG”: Series of logical articles from THE site posted here to prepare for the challenge, as some people in Assam even using loud speakers to spread their message without a challenge. Article 4: Predestination

[Bartta Bistar]

 http://www.faithfreedom.org/Articles/sina/predestination.htm
Predestination



By. Ali Sina <http://www.faithfreedom.org/Author/Sina.htm>



Does God choose to guide people or do we have free will?

One of the most disconcerting concepts in Quran is the concept of
predetermination (jabr). According to Islam, believing in Allah is the sole
purpose of a human's life in this world.

 *"I did not create Jinn and Men except that they may worship me"* [Qur'an
51:56].

Also in a Hadith, generally cited by the Sufis, Allah says, "I was a hidden
treasure and wished to be known, so I created the people to know me and to
worship me".

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 Allah. He does not like to be ignored and has no mercy on those
who do so. This belief is not exclusive to Islam. The Bible also presents a
vengeful and a jealous God.

The problem is that being able to pass this test of faith and to gain
admittance to paradise is not in our hand. It is again Allah who chooses
those whom he pleases to guide and lead astray those whom he wants.

In one verse, the Qur'an affirms that if Allah so willed, he could certainly
have brought every soul its true guidance. But that won't happen as he makes
it clear that he does not want to guide everyone and vows to "fill the Hell
with Jinns and men all together."* *

*" If We had so willed, We could certainly have brought every soul its true
guidance: but the Word from Me will come true, "I will fill Hell with Jinns
and men all together*."*(Q.32.13)*

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 a wrath filling the
Hell with those whom he purposefully did not guide? This defies logic.

In response Muslims say that we have free will to accept God or reject him.
But this is not what the above verse is saying. As this verse clearly
explains, if Allah wanted to guide people, he certainly could have done it.
Yet, he decided not to guide some and then fill the Hell with all those who
he did not guide. This verse tells that human beings have no control over
being guided at all. It all depends on God's pleasure or whim.

Some verses in the Qur'an indicate that even if one wants to be guided, he
cannot, because Allah  has sealed his heart.

*
"….Such are men whose hearts Allah has sealed*." *(Q.47.16)*

This is reminiscent of the bargaining of Moses with Pharaoh for the release
of the Israelites. Each time Pharaoh conceded and let Moses take away the
Jews, God intervened and "made his heart stubborn" then he kept sending a
new calamity to the poor people of Egypt who had nothing to do with Pharaohs
decisions, until Pharaoh accepted the departure of the Jews, but again God
made his heart stubborn and sent upon the wretched innocent people, another
calamity.

In another verse Allah curses his creatures and instead of giving them
insight makes them blind and deaf.

*"**Such are the men whom Allah has cursed for He has made them deaf and
blinded their sight." **(Q47.23)** *

This behavior is not befitting of the creator of this universe. Even if
these people whom Allah chose to mislead, did something wrong why he,
instead of opening their hearts should seal them?  Why he made them deaf and
blind, instead of giving them sight and hearing and then punish them? Is
this justice? What would you say of a king that cuts the feet of his
subjects and orders them to run and then burns them for not running.
Wouldn't you say such a king is a psychopath? Would the almighty God act
like a psychopath?

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?" **(Q.47.24)*

Is it God that seals the hearts of the people or they do it themselves?
Obviously these two statements don't add up.

Sometimes the Qur'an contradicts itself in the same verse.

*"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."
* (Q.76:29-31)

The first part of this verse gives the idea that people have free will to
choose between taking the path or not. Then immediately that is contradicted
and it says that Allah "will admit to his mercy whom HE wills." Either we
choose to be guided or Allah chooses. Only one of these statements can be
true.

The next question is how can Allah punish people with a "grievous penalty"
if He has chosen not to guide them?

If the choice of being guided is made by us, then the verse 32:13, 47:16 and
47:23 are wrong. But if they are right and indeed it is Allah who chooses to
guide anyone that he pleases, then there is a tremendous injustice in the
way Allah deals with his servants. If being guided or not entirely depends
on Allah's will, then what is our fault? He assigned to us our destiny and
he cannot punish us for what he has willed for us. This is clearly unjust,
which belies another claim of the Qur'an that says Allah is a just god.


*"… And Allah means no injustice to any of His creatures." **(Q.3.108)*

Why a god who is able to guide people chooses to lead them astray, and then
fill the Hell with those whom he himself has misled?

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.


Allah's Split Personality

The confusion does not end there. The following verses assert that Allah
misleads people by making their deeds pleasing to them.

 *As to those who believe not in the Hereafter, We have made their deeds
pleasing in their eyes; and so they wander about in distraction.
[27:4<http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/027.qmt.html#027.004>
]*

*"Nay! to those who believe not, their pretence seems pleasing, but they are
kept back (thereby) from the path. And those whom Allah leaves to stray, no
one can guide." [13:33<http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/013.qmt.html#013.033>
]"*

Yet, in other places it is Satan that makes their sinful act seem alluring
to them.

* "..On the contrary their hearts became hardened, and SATAN made their
(sinful) acts seem alluring to them.
[6:43<http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/006.qmt.html#006.043>
]*

* Remember SATAN made their (sinful) acts seem alluring to them, and said [
8:48 <http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/008.qmt.html#008.048>]  *

*By Allah, We (also) sent (Our messengers) to Peoples before thee; but Satan
made, (to the wicked), their own acts seem alluring: He is also their patron
today. [16:63 <http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/quran/016.qmt.html#016.063>]*

So isn't it logical to deduce that Satan is a partner of Allah, helping him
in his daily work of misguiding people? Or perhaps Allah has a split
personality that sometimes reveal itself as Satan! .
  Explaining the Unexplainable

This confusion whether it is Allah that seals the hearts of the people or
they themselves do it has fueled heated debates between Muslims throughout
the centuries. It caused schisms and a lot of bloodshed.

On one hand the bulk of the Muslims adhered to the concept of
predetermination (jabr=compulsion). The more radical of these "jabrians"
were the Asharian who denied all free agency in man. Arguing:

"Nothing can happen in the world, whether it respects the conditions and
operation of things, or good or evil, or obedience and disobedience, or
faith and infidelity ... that is not contained in the written tablet of the
decree of Allah." ("Dictionary of Islam" by T.P. Hughes, pages 472-473).

On the other hand the Qadrias and the Mutazilites advocated the free will of
man and therefore were rejected as heretics. They argued that man has
absolute freedom of will and is responsible for his own actions. If not so
rewards and punishments for virtuous acts and sins have 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." *(42:30)* *

In fact there are many verses that give an impression that men are
responsible for their actions.

*"Because Allah will never change the grace which He hath bestowed on a
people until they change what is in their (own) souls" (**8.53)** *

*" Allah does not change a people's lot unless they change what is in their
hearts. But when (once) Allah willeth a people's punishment, there can be no
turning it back, nor will they find, besides Him, any to protect." (**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). *

*Allah does not compel belief and leaves the people free to believe or
disbelieve (6: 35, 150; xvi-. 9). *

*Whoever has done an atom's weight of good shall meet with its reward and
whoever has done an atom's weight of evil shall meet with its consequences
(99: 7-8). *

Thus, each person could find something in Qur'an that corroborated his
preference in this baffling dilemma of Islamic concept of predetermination
(jabr) and free will (Ikhtyar)

Most modern Muslims tend to side with the free will of man but their opinion
is drastically in contrast with many verses of Qur'an that alarmingly
maintain that Allah's decisions are completely arbitrary.  *  *

*"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.

*"If Allah had willed he would have made you one nation. But he leads astray
whom he will and guides whom he will. But you shall certainly be called to
account for all your actions." (16:93). *

Here again, Allah is in charge. He is the one who guides whom he wills. What
is unclear is how people could be accountable for their actions if it is
Allah who has chosen not to guide them.  This is like a play director assign
good and bad roles to some actors and then punish and reward them for their
roles.

The same concept is conveyed in the following verse.

"*It is equal to them, whether you warn them or not, they will not believe.
Allah has put the seal upon their hearts." (2:6-7)  *

The above verse renders futile the whole idea of prophethood. If Allah has
put the seal upon the people's hearts and warning or not warning them makes
no difference, then what is the point of sending messengers? It simply does
not make sense that a wise God seal the hearts of the people and send
messengers to guide them knowing that they will not be guided thanks to his
little operation on their hearts.

*"Whomsoever Allah guides, he is rightly guided, and whom he leads astray,
they are the losers! We have created for Gehenna many jinns and men ..."
(7:178-179)  *

Here again it is Allah who guides or leads astray people. But this verse
goes even further. It gives the impression that Allah has deliberately
created some jinns and some men and purposefully leads them astray in order
to use them as fuel in his Gehenna (Hell). Just to make sure that we have
not misunderstood the concept, let us study other verses.

*"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).
*

*"Allah leads astray whomsoever he will and guides whomsoever he will."
(14:4). *

*"For Allah leaves to stray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills. So let
not thy soul go out in (vainly) sighing after them: for Allah knows well all
that they do!" (35:8) *

* "… Thus doth Allah leave to stray whom He pleaseth, and guide whom He
pleaseth:. (74:31)

"With Allah is the argument that reaches home: if it had been His will, He
could indeed have guided you all." (Sura 6:149). *
Predestination in Hadith

There are many hadiths that ratify the concept of predestination.

 Sahih Muslim *Book 32, Number 6392:*

Narrated Hudhayfah ibn Usayd:

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 for doing something wrong that was
predestined for him even before he was born?

However, the above hadith contains some more errors that are scientifically
wrong. The gender of the fetus in not determined forty or fifty days after
conception. It is determined at conception itself. Some sperms carry an X
chromosome and some a Y. The sex of the child depends on which one hits the
egg. Now, parents can choose the gender of their child with the help of a
doctor quite easily by selecting the sperms that carry the right chromosome.
So people can change what Muhammad thought is predestined and unchangeable.
This is another strong argument that many Islamic dogmas, are baseless.

In another hadith we learn that Allah has created the Hell and the paradise
and their denizens already.

*Sahih Muslim Book 32, Number 6435:*
Narrated Aisha: A child died and I said: There is happiness for this child
who is a bird from amongst the birds of Paradise. Thereupon Allah's Apostle
(peace be upon him) said: Don't you know that Allah created the Paradise and
He created the Hell and He created the dwellers for this (Paradise) and the
denizens for this (Hell)?

This hadith conveys the idea that the child won't go to paradise
automatically because he was a child and had not committed sins. Whether he
goes to paradise or not depends whether he was created to be a dweller of
paradise or the denizen of hell. The concept of predestination as explained
by Islam embodies an injustice that did not escape even the prophet's
contemporaries.

*Sahih Muslim Book 32, Number 6406:*
Narrated Imran ibn Husayn: AbulAswad reported that Imran asked me: What is
your view what the people do today in the world, and strive for, is it
something decreed for them or preordained for them or will their fate in the
Hereafter be determined by the fact that their Prophets brought them
teaching which they did not act upon? I said: Of course, it is something,
which is predetermined for them and preordained for them.

He (further) said: Then, would it not be an injustice (to punish them)? I
felt greatly disturbed about that, and said: Everything is created by Allah
and lies in His Power. He will not be questioned as to what He does, but
they will be questioned. Thereupon he said to me: May Allah have mercy upon
you, I only meant to ask you in order to test your intelligence."

This kind of reaction is typical of the Muslims when they are asked
questions that they cannot answer. If someone asked a question concerning an
absurd tenet of Islam that Muslims cannot respond to, the only answer he
would get is frown, in the best case and punishment by death in the worse
case.

The idea of God controlling the mind of his subjects, inspiring in them sin
or piety and then punishing or rewarding them for what they had no control
is clearly unjust. But when the questioner speaks out his mind he is scolded
and has to change his attitude least he be branded as heretic an suffer the
consequences.

"Two men of the tribe of Muzaynah came to Allah's Apostle (PBUH) and said:
Allah's Apostle, what is your opinion? That which the people do in the world
and strive for, is something decreed for them, something preordained for
them? And will their fate in the Hereafter be determined by the fact that
their Prophets brought them teachings which they did not act upon and thus
they deserve of punishment?

Thereupon, he said: Of course, it happens as it is decreed by Destiny and
preordained for them, and this view is confirmed by this verse of the Book
of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious: *"Consider the soul and Him Who made it
perfect, then breathed into it its sin and its piety." (91:8).* (ibid)

The verse 91:8 that is referred to in this hadith states that it is Allah
who inspires in people sin (*fojur*) and piety (*taqva*), which is in
conformity with another verse in the Qur'an that clearly states all good
things and bad things are from Allah.

*"… Wherever ye are, death will find you out, even if ye are in towers built
up strong and high!" If some good befalls them, they say, "This is from
Allah"; but if evil, they say, "This is from thee" (O Prophet). Say: "All
things are from Allah." But what hath come to these people, that they fail
to understand a single fact? **(4.78)** *

 Sahih Muslim *Book 32, Number 6407:*
Narrated AbuHurayrah: Allah's Apostle (PBUH) said: Verily, a person performs
deeds for a long time like the deeds of the people of Paradise. Then his
deeds are terminated like the deeds of the people of Hell and, verily, a
person performs deeds like the denizens of Fire for a long time, then this
deed of his is ultimately followed by the deeds of the people of Paradise.

Muslims argue that since Allah is the owner of this universe, he can do
whatever he wills with it without having to respond to anyone, just as a
farmer is entitled to do whatever he wishes with his gardens. A gardener is
free to prune any tree, to transplant it and even to cut it and burn it.
Since he is the owner of his property his decisions are law. Despite this,
unless he is completely crazy, the gardener's actions are predictable. No
gardener would chop and burn the trees that produce good fruits, nurture
trees that bring forth bitter fruits, or destroy his garden without any
reason. He is free to do whatever he wishes but if he is not out of his mine
he would follow  the norms of logic and therefore his actions are
predictable.

Of course, God can do whatever he pleases. However he will not act crazy. He
cannot be unjust or stupid. He can but he won't. You and I can do a lot of
things that no one would ever find out, like steal or lie or even kill
someone we don't know for no reason and get away with it. However if we are
not psychopaths we will not do such things. By the same token, even if God
can be unjust he will not be because he is not a psychopath God. The fact
that he can do anything he pleases and there is not law above him to keep
him accountable is no excuse for him to act his this insane way.  Shouldn't
God be reasonable in his deeds? Shouldn't his actions make sense?  Why
should a just God throw into hell a person who has committed no crime and
reward one who has done no good? This goes against any sense of justice, as
we know it.

Why did Muhammad depict his Allah in this way? It is because Allah was
Muhammad's own alter ego. Allah was everything the narcissist Muhammad
wanted to be. Narcissists want to be loved, feared, respected, and be free
to do as they please and respond to no authority. Muhammad lived his wet
dream though his sockpuppet Allah.

*Book 32, Number 6416: *
Narrated Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-'As: I heard Allah's Apostle (PBUH) as
saying: Allah ordained the measures (of quality) of the creation fifty
thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth, as His Throne
was upon water.

Modern Muslim apologists reason that the idea that Allah has a foreknowledge
of everything that He created and the fact that the events unfold  exactly
according to what he predicted, does not imply that human beings have been
completely deprived of the freedom of action. The foreknowledge of God is an
acknowledged fact, but it should not be interpreted in the sense of
predestination, for if we do so we shall have to conceive of eternity as a
storehouse of ready-made events, from which they drop one by one like
particles of sand in a glass hour. If we take the foreknowledge to be a
reflecting mirror we shall have to deprive the Creator and the Controller of
the Universe of His Creative activity." This view contradicts the Qur'an and
many hadiths that unequivocally affirm that destiny is predetermined and it
cannot be changed.

The Quran also teaches that potentialities are  pre-fixed too. For example
if a person is born with a physical defect, that is what God has preordained
for him and nothing can change it. Nevertheless, with the advancement of the
medicine, many physical defects can be overcome. Some physical deficiencies
can be rectified even when a child is still unborn. Should we conclude that
man is changing what God had determined as the destiny and recorded in his
book as unchangeable?

*Book 32, Number 6420: *
Narrated AbuHurayrah: The polytheists of the Quraysh came to have an
argument with Allah's Apostle (PBUH) in regard to Destiny and then this
verse was revealed: "On the day when they are dragged into the Fire upon
their faces; taste the touch of Fire. Surely, We have created everything
according to a measure"

According to Muhammad even accidents are the works of God. If a person makes
a mistake, say for example passes through the traffic light, which causes an
accident; we think that he is responsible. But the prophet of God used to
think it is the work of God.

*Book 32, Number 6441:*
Narrated AbuHurayrah: … and if anything (in the form of trouble) comes to
you, don't say: If I had not done that, it would not have happened so and
so, but say: Allah did that what He had ordained to do and your "if" opens
the (gate for the Satan.

Men are, therefore, completely subordinate to the overruling power of God,
they cannot do anything unless God wills so.

The idea of predetermination is clearly expressed in a story told in the
Qur'an. (18: 60-82) It is a story of Moses meeting Khidhr, a man wiser than
himself. Moses accompanies Khidhr for enlightenment and is puzzled when
Khidhr, among few other bizarre things, slays an innocent boy. When he
enquires, Khidhr explains that the lad would have grown up to become an
obstinate and a rebellious person, hence becoming a disappointment to his
pious parents. So he killed the boy to spare his parents from future anguish
of having a disbelieving son.

So the boy was punished for a crime that he had not yet committed. This
story eliminates any chance that the boy could have chosen to become a pious
person. Which raises the question, if his destiny was predetermined and the
only way to save his parents from the torments of his future misdemeanor was
to kill him before he grow up, why Allah made him in the first place? And
why he does not kill all the people whom he knows would commit sin sometime
in the future? Wouldn't it be nicer if God killed all the baby's that he
knows would be disbelievers (the biggest crime) when they grow up  as soon
as they are born? Then the question remains, why he makes them in the first
place? Why he destines for them this sin when they are still a 40 day
fetus?  The following hadith is in confirmation of the above verse

*Book 32, Number 6434: *
Narrated Ubayy ibn Ka'b: Allah's Apostle (peace_be_upon_him) said: The young
man whom Khadir killed was a non-believer by his very nature and had he
survived he would have involved his parents in defiance and unbelief.

Further Reading:
Christians Ask Muslims <http://www.answering-islam.org.uk/Nehls/Ask/> by
Gerhard Nehls

>From all this, we can either conclude that God is a psychopath lunatic or
that Muhammad was a liar and had no understanding of God. Which one makes
more sense to you?
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