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From: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu ( Behnam Sadeghi )
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Free will vs. Predestination
Message-ID: <1990Nov1.215418.20068@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 1 Nov 90 21:54:18 GMT
Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
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Approved: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu


It seems to me that there are at least two views of the 
question of free will versus predestination which are 
logically consistent with God's omnipotence and omniscience.
In the following, "we" refers to ALL human beings:

------
1)  God has *determined* all of our actions beforehand.  Our 
"will" plays no role on what we do in life.  God has also 
determined our reward and punishment in the hereafter for our 
conduct in life (which was itself predetermined by God).

Clearly all that is done by us, good,
bad, or otherwise, is "willed" by God because it is determined
by God.

This view doesn't contradict God's omniscience because
obviously by having predetermined our actions, God is 
in full knowlede of our actions/reward/punishment.

This view clearly doesn't contradict God`s omnipotence 
either.

2)  God has endowed us with free will.  This means that God
has willed that our personal decisions play some role on what
we do in life.  This also means that God has willed that our
reward and punishment in the hereafter depends on our conduct
in life, which was influenced by our own will.

Clearly all that is done by us, good, bad, or otherwise, is "willed"
by God in the sense that it is by God's will that we have the 
freedom to make the choices that we make in life.  However, these
actions are not "willed" by God IF "willed" implies predestination
and lack of any freedom by humans.  Also,
the fact that God wills all actions (in the sense just explained) 
doesn't imply that God approves of it if we sin.

(This the ambiguity in the meaning of "will" that was pointed out
by brother Iftikhar).

This view doesn't contradict God's omniscience because the fact
that God has given us the freedom to make choices in life doesn't
imply that God is not aware of what choices we will make and what
their outcome will be (reward/punishment/etc.). 

This view doesn't contradict God's omnipotence because, being
omnipotent, God may have willed that we shouldn't have the 
freedom that He has given us.  It was by God's will that we were
given free will, and had God so wished, he would have deprived us
of this freedom.  Furthermore, it is God's will that our reward and
punsihemnt (e.g. in the hereafter) is a function of our conduct.  
Therefore this doesn't contradict God's omnipotence either.

---
I am not going to aruge here in favor of either of these views 
because I don't think my opinion matters.
 
Both of the above views have been held by Moslems.  The first view 
gained strenght under the Ummayyads and has been held by the Asharis.
The 2nd view has been held by the "Adliyya"  (which includes the 
Ja'fari school as a subset) and was held by the mu'tazila.  

Behnam Sadeghi