Free Will vs Determinism vs Compatibilism: Answers from an Islamic Paradigm

 

 

Libertarianism: Individuals have genuine, uncaused free will, allowing them to make choices independently of any deterministic or external influences. People can truly be the ultimate originators of their actions and decisions.

 

Hard Determinism: Human actions and choices are entirely determined by factors such as genetics, environment, and past experiences. According to this view, individuals lack genuine free will, as their decisions are predetermined by these external influences.

 

Compatibilism/Soft Determinism: Compatibilism attempts to reconcile free will with determinism. Therefore, free will isn't necessarily the absence of external influences but rather the ability to act in accordance with one's own desires and motivations, even if those desires are shaped by external factors.

 

Divine Decree or predestination is a difficult concept to comprehend as how can there be free will if God decrees or wills everything? If there is no freewill then how can people be accountable for their actions? Islam affirms that God decrees everything while at the same time people have free will. God knows the future, God has willed the future, God has written the future on a preserved tablet, and God has created the future. In the western there are three main schools of thought when it comes to the idea of free will, libertarianism, compatibilism, and determinism. Determinism states that there is an uninterrupted causal chain that forces all human actions, cause and effect, and that there is no such thing as free will, it is only an illusion. Libertarianism is the exact opposite of this. Compatibilism is the dominant opinion in Islamic schools of thought. Al Ghazali, a prominent Muslim philosopher, believed that there is no necessary link between cause and effect. An analogy for this is different frames of a film, each frame comes one after another and it seems that frame 1 is causing frame 2 and frame 3 is causing frame 4 but the occasionalists say that God is causing each frame independently of the other frames. However, while this preserves the sovereignty of God, it seems to be another form of determinism as everything is being caused by God without human interaction, cosmic ventriloquism. Ibn Qayyim, another Islamic philosopher, on the other hand, attempts to solve this by using the analogy of a slave and a master. The slave has been given permission to spend money from the master, but all the transactions of the slave are possible only because of this permission. If the slave spends  the money he has been given permission to use properly, he will be rewarded; if not, then he will be punished. We are the slaves or servants of God who are given permission to have free will just as the slave is given the choice to buy using money in the analogy. The problem with this analogy is how can an individual have independence out of the will of God? Ibn Taymiyya attempts to understand Qadr using the following example, where does a child come from, the mother, but in another way the child is caused by God. God is the primary cause and the mother is the secondary cause which God allowed to happen but overall, his stance on free will is that no one truly knows the mechanics, we can only argue for its non-contradiction as there no human analogy can attempt to accurately portray compatibilism. A hadith that can help solve this is given, 

Abu Mūsa al-Ash‘ari (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) said: “The similitude of guidance and knowledge that Allah has sent me with is like heavy rain that fell on a land. Some spots had good soil; they absorbed the water and brought forth much grass and herbs. Other spots were solid; they held the water. Allah thus made them useful to people: they drank, watered, and grew plantation. Some of the rain, however, fell on plane spots that retained no water and produced no herbage. Such is the likeness of the one who understood the religion of Allah and benefited from what Allah has sent me with; he learned and taught others. It is also the likeness of the one who did not raise his head to it (meaning that he was too arrogant to learn and benefit) and thus did not accept Allah's guidance with which I was sent.”

And another Hadith,

“Ali reported that one day Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) was sitting with a wood in his hand and he was scratching the ground. He raised his head and said: There is not one amongst you who has not been allotted his seat in Paradise or Hell. They said: Allah's Messenger. then, why should we perform good deeds, why not depend upon our destiny? Thereupon he said. No, do perform good deeds, for everyone is facilitated in that for which he has been created; then he recited this verse:" Then, who gives to the needy and guards against evil and accepts the excellent (the truth of Islam and the path of righteousness it prescribes), We shall make easy for him the easy end...”(xcii. 5-10).

Moreover, the provision, life span, deeds, and ultimate fate in the Hereafter of every human being are written by the angels as soon as the soul is blown into the fetus. Our destiny was decreed for us even before we were born.

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said: The creation of each one of you is in his mother’s womb for forty days or nights, then as a clot for a similar period, then as a piece of flesh for a similar period, then the angel is sent to it to announce four decrees. He writes his provision, his life span, his deeds, and whether he is blessed or damned. Then, he breathes the soul into it. Verily, one of you acts with the deeds of the people of Paradise until he is not but an arm’s length away from it, yet the decree overtakes him, he acts with the deeds of the people of Hellfire and thus enters Hellfire. And one of you acts with the deeds of the people of Hellfire until he is not but an arm’s length away from it, yet the decree overtakes him, he acts with the deeds of the people of Paradise and thus enters it.

   The extraneous variable, the water hitting the ground, there are some parts of the earth that react to it and some parts that are dry and do not. There are intrinsic attributes of those parts of the earth that allow for herbage to be produced in one place but not in the other. In the same way that there is something intrinsic in some people that allow them to accept revelation or to react negatively. This indicates free will as there is a principle of difference in the way that two people act to the same extraneous variable that indicates that they have difference choices to make or choice making ability. The second hadith teaches that while our ultimate fate is known to Allah, it is our responsibility as humans to live righteously, perform good deeds, and follow the teachings of Islam. Good actions are an essential part of the divine plan, and individuals are encouraged to align their lives with these moral principles. People who are destined for heaven are naturally attracted for good deeds and those who are destined for hell are naturally attracted for evil deeds. Imagine if there were two objects placed on top of a hill, a cone and a sphere. Imagine if one was to push both off the hill, the sphere will easily roll off while the cone will not budge due to its flat bottom. This is due to the intrinsic characteristics of both. Perhaps there is an uninterrupted chain of events as determinism says but the individual but the way one reacts depends on if they are a cone or a sphere. Yet this analogy is imperfect as well. Or the analogy of a man who is going to pushed into a pool but at the same time he was going to jump. Both of these analogies attempt to explain compatibilism but are imperfect. Everyone has the first-person subjective experience of choice which cannot be explained by determinism as they just claim it is an illusion. Your action to read this article is necessary as God has willed it but contingent in that He could have willed something else. I have no answer for a mechanism to explain it yet this goes for all the attributes of Allah.

 In Islam it is said that the first creation of Allah was the Pen,

“Ubādah ibn As-Sāmit (may Allah be pleased with him) said to his son: "O Son, you will not taste true faith until you know that whatever has come to you would never have missed you, and that whatever has missed you would never have come to you. I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'The first thing Allah created was the Pen. He commanded it to write. It said: 'My Lord, what shall I write?' He said: 'Write down what has been ordained for all things until the establishment of the Hour.'" O Son, I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'Whoever dies believing otherwise does not belong to me.'" In a narration by Imām Ahmad: "Verily, the first thing Allah, the Almighty, created was the Pen. He said to it: ‘Write.’ So in that very hour it wrote down all what was to occur up to the Day of Judgment.”

God knows everything that will happen as He is omniscient. This knowledge has been written in a preserved tablet with Him. God wills what He knows and what He will do. God created humanity to enact His will on earth.

Everything happens by the will of Allah, despite and there are two ways in which “the will of Allah” is understood: the universal will and the legislative will. The universal will encompasses everything that is allowed to be, both good and evil while the legislative will consists of what Allah wants from us of good deeds. 14th century Muslim jurist, Ibn Abi al-‘Izz writes,

“The researchers among Ahl al-Sunnah say that ‘will’ in the book of Allah is two types: a will that is preordained, universal, and creative, and a will that is religious, commanding, and legislating. Thus, the legislative will includes what Allah loves and is pleased with, and the universal will is what is willed, including all things that occur.”

The truth is that our actions make a meaningful difference and can change the course of the decree. By bringing our will to coincide with the legislative will of God our fate will change for the better. Allah said:

“There is a time decreed for everything. God erases or confirms whatever He wills, and the source of Scripture is with Him.” (13:39)

The “source of Scripture” is the Umm al-Kitab or Mother of the Book. It is the Preserved Tablet in which the unchanging decree is written. But the books of individuals, our deeds, and fate as recorded by the angels can change according to our actions. Ibn Abbas explained the verse, saying, “There are two books: a book in which is erased whatever Allah wills, and with Him is the mother of the Book.” Things are being recorded by the angels, destinies are being fulfilled or changed, every single day. The catalyst for a change in fate depends upon intentions, prayers, supplications, and good deeds. It is not the power of our actions in themselves that makes the change rather it is the reward that Allah bestows upon us for surrendering to His will. In this way, humankind is held accountable for their deeds. This is the whole purpose of life; the great test culminating at the Day of Judgment would not make sense unless the judgment was just and meaningful. Hence, God delegated will to humankind to be used in the service of good. We are rewarded or punished in the Hereafter based upon what we did with our God-given will.

Again Ibn Taymiyyah, the Hanbali jurist and theologian, writes,

“Among what was agreed upon by the predecessors of this nation and its leaders regarding their faith in the divine decree and providence, is that Allah created all things, that what He wills comes to be and what He does not will cannot come to be, that Allah misguides whomever He wills and guides whomever he wills, and that the servants have will and ability, acting upon their ability and their will according to what Allah has enabled for them. Indeed, the servants do not will unless Allah wills.”

Thus, what we decide to do with our God-given will determine the fate that Allah assigns to us. The essence of the matter is that good deeds lead to a good ending, and evil deeds lead to an evil ending.

Actions and causes without the will of Allah are nothing, yet they are still necessary for bringing about a good fate. Action is always prescribed for the believers in relation to the decree, both before it comes to be and after it is fulfilled. Ibn Taymiyyah writes,

“The servant has two states of being in relation to what is decreed: a state before the decree and a state after the decree. It is a duty upon him before the decree to seek refuge in Allah, to depend upon Him, and to call upon Him. If the result of the decree is not from his actions, then he must be patient over it and satisfied with it. If it was the result of his actions and it is a blessing, he praises Allah for that. If it was the result of sin, then he seeks forgiveness from Him for that.”

Before the decree takes place we pray to God and put in the work necessary to achieve a good outcome. After the decree is fulfilled, we have to accept it and move on.

How is godly determinism and free will compatible in terms of the mechanism, only God knows but all that needs to be shown is that it is not inconsistent with the intrinsic attributes of God in order for it not to be impossible. A determinist must explain why this thing exists and why we have this first-person subjective experience of choice. There is an irony in choosing to become a determinist since they do not believe in choice. They may be internally consistent but their position does not have the scope to explain the human experience of choice. Libertarianism faces different problem in that they cannot explain why things have cause and effects. Perhaps it may be appropriate to say in terms of Hegelian dialectics that the free will is the thesis, the antithesis is divine determinism, and the synthesis is compatibilism. Human free will exists but we do not know how it can exist without God but there is no contradiction as explained above. In the same way it is known in the Islamic paradigm that God is all-knowing and all-hearing but the extent of the mechanics of infinity can never be understood. However, it can be soothing for the believer that God is always in control no matter how difficult things may be in their life, everything has meaning.