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From: jnawaz@skat.usc.edu (Jemshed Nawaz)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.islam
Subject: Re: Free will vs. Predestination
Message-ID: <1990Nov5.070312.18165@nntp-server.caltech.edu>
Date: 5 Nov 90 07:03:12 GMT
Sender: bes@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Behnam Sadeghi)
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
Lines: 46
Approved: bes@tybalt.caltech.edu

In article <1990Nov3.214829.12588@nntp-server.caltech.edu> soudan@iitmax.iit.edu (Bassel Soudan) writes:
>
>In article <1990Nov1.215418.20068@nntp-server.caltech.edu> bes@tybalt.caltech.edu ( Behnam Sadeghi ) writes:
>>
>>Clearly all that is done by us, good,
>>bad, or otherwise, is "willed" by God because it is determined
>>by God.
>>
>
>	In this view, you are placing a lot of unfairness upon God by saying
>that he has "predetermined our actions and rewards. It sounds like He
>decided everything and then let us go through the motions. But there is
>nothing as fair as God. He did not predetermine our actions and deeds. He
>did not decide for us that you shall be muslim and you shall not. He left that
>to us. In the Quran God says that he has taken a vow from all the children of
>Adam that he is thier Lord. Then he showed every one of us the two paths and
>"WE CHOSE". The best way to think about this goes like this:
>
>	God created us. He knows exactly what we are going to do because he
>	is the one who created us and he is Omnisient. He knows what choices
>	we will make because he created us and knows everything about us. We
>	have all the freedom we want in doing what ever we want. But he still
>	knows how we will excercise this freedom. He gave us the freedom to do
>	what we want, then said: If you want me to be happy with you don't do
>	this and do that. He asked us to limit our own freedom for his sake so
>	that we may prove our belief in him. That is why he will reward us in
>	the here after. For the limits that "WE" placed on "OUR" freedom
>	following what he "ASKED" us to.
>    :
>    :
>    :
>Bassel

I agree with Bassel. However this how I best understood this subject:
	Consider two points in space, point A and point B and you connect
the two points using different paths, so that if you start at pt A, no matter
what path you take you end up at pt B.
	Now let pts A and B be two events and let the different paths represent
your possible actions. The events are predetermined by Allah, whereas the 
actions are entirley upto you i.e. you can practise your free will to choose
any action, but no matter what your choice is you cannot influence the events
that will happen. In other words you are in total control of your actions(since
it is on the basis of these actions that you will be judged in the Hereafter)
but AllahSWT is in total control of the outcome of your actions.

Jemshed Nawaz