بسم
الله الرحمن الرحيم
والصلاة
والسلام على خاتم النبيين
وعلى
آله واصحابه اجمعين
Among
the Muslims there arose two deviated denominations concerning the
subject of free will. The Mujbirah or Jabariyah believe that Allah is
the doer of everything in truth, and man can only be said to commit
his deeds metaphorically. This false doctrine not only absolves man
from responsibility for either the goodness or evil of his deeds, it
imputes evil deeds to Allah’s Person, such as the act of adultery
(I seek refuge with Allah from such a heinous idea). On the other
end of the spectrum are the Qadariyah. They believe man is the
independent creator of his own deeds. They hold to this doctrine so
as to justify the idea that man alone is to be held accountable for
his deeds, good or bad, but consequently impugn the Lordship and
Sovereignty of Allah in assigning a rival, independent creator to
Him. This is a sort of dualism, which is why the Prophet (sall Allahu
alaihi wasallam) reportedly prophecied the appearance of the
Qadariyah and named them the “Magians of the Ummah”. Magians or
Majus refer to the old, dualist religion of Iran, which believes in
two divine beings that are independent of each other, “good”
Ahura Mazda and “evil” Angra Mainyu. The false doctrine of the
Qadariyah was inherited by two misguided sects, the Mu’tazilah and
the Shi’ah, the latter persist and continue to uphold this
doctrine.
But
as for orthodox Islam, we believe that Allah Most High is the Creator
of our deeds and acts, as the holy Quran says:
وَاللهُ
خَلَقَكُمْ وَمَا تَعْمَلُونَ
Allah
created you and that which you do
(Surah
37:96)
So
the false belief of the Qadariyah, Mu’tazilah and Shi’ah that man
is the independent creator of his own deeds directly opposes the
clear teaching of our Scripture. At the same time, orthodox Islam
teaches that while Allah creates man’s acts, man earns and performs
them of his own intention and volition. This is the doctrine of Kasb,
that is, the earning of man’s deeds that are created for him on the
basis of the condition of his heart and soul. So while Allah is the
Creator of man’s deeds, He is not the doer or performer of those
deeds, hence they cannot be ascribed to Him. That is because man does
not have the capacity to create his own deeds, indeed, there is no
creator in a true and independent sense apart from Allah Himself. In
this way, orthodox Islam maintains the Lordship, Sovereignty and
Omnipotence of Allah while also relegating responsibility of the good
or evil of man’s acts to man alone.
Some detractors quote the verse ٱلَّذِىٓ أَحْسَنَ كُلَّ شَىْءٍ خَلَقَهُ "Who perfected everything which He created" (32:7) as proof that Allah is not the Creator of our evil deeds, since everything which Allah created must necessarily be good. Those who make this argument must first reconcile their understanding of this Verse with other Verses in the holy Quran which clearly state that Allah is the Creator of everything and that He created everything, otherwise it will be an apparent contradiction in the Quran. But our answer is that the word احسن in the context of this Ayah (32:7) does not mean good in a moral or ethical sense, but good or perfect with respect to form and function, as virtually all of the exegetes have explained in their Tafasir.
ReplyDelete