Affliction, tragedy and evil would be just what God wishes to throw at an individual, who could scarcely escape its occurrence. This seems to suggest a response of futility toward life in which all is merely endured and passes almost robotically. At the same time, one might interpret it as comforting, for it eliminates the human's striving and desire to achieve something before the eyes of God. Or if God allows good to enter a life, this good is not deserved or merited, but is purely random. God's character would appear fickle, if not even unjust, for subjecting people to a predestined fate they cannot hope to change. Perhaps the main problem with this view is that it gives rise to the idea that oppressive actions and conditions are God-created, and thus one's only option is to accept and endure them without any real hope.
Free Will in the Qadarites
The other movement in the early debate on predestination was the Qadarites. Those in this camp were dissatisfied on moral grounds with the Jabrites' position. What incensed them was the thought that denying free will implicated God in evil and impugned His righteous character. Speaking of the Qadarites, Mahmoud says, "At the heart of their philosopho-theological commitment to the notions of free will and human responsibility lay the notion of divine justice."
After all, how could a good, wise, and loving God predestine someone for evil and Hell? How could God initiate unjust action in the world? It didn't make sense to the Qadarites that God could be blamed for the injustice and suffering in the world. They found it intolerable to assess the presence of evil in the world as being a result of God's will. If people suffer, only humans could be blamed for that evil.
Nor did it make sense to them that God could assign someone to Hell who had no free choice. How could God will that humans act against his decrees and then discipline them for it? How could humans be held to account for unjust acts that they didn't willfully commit? It seemed more palatable to the Qadarites to believe that humans must be free and accountable for their actions because they have choice. Only free will creates the condition of accountability. Therefore, humans could be blamed for evil and God could be removed from seeming injustice. God's judgment had to be based on whether humans have chosen wickedness or goodness.
The Qadarites used Qur'anic verses that indicate the possibility of free will to combat the Jabrite position. They stressed texts that emphasize a person's choice to accept or reject God's word (18:29). Another text seemed clearly to state that belief is a human choice and a free possibility: "Then whosoever will, let him believe, and whosoever will, let him disbelieve" (18:29). They pointed to other verses that gave humans the capacity to rebel against their original choice and turn aside to disbelief after once having believed (e.g., 3.86). One text goes so far as to say, "Whatever good happens to you, it is from God; but whatever evil happens to you, it is from your own soul" (4:79). What sense would it make, they wondered, for God to ask an account on Judgment Day (16:39) of one's actions on earth if in fact humans had no option in the matter? In these texts, the Qadarites believed, the burden of responsibility is clearly placed on the individual who has free will to follow the righteous path of God or to renounce it.
With few exceptions, the Qadarites believed that it was impossible to say that God is the agent of human action. God helps humans to choose the right path. Summarizing Bishr b. al-Mu-tamir's view on omnipotence, Mahmoud writes:
He argued that God has infinite grace (lutf) that could, had He willed, turn all people into believers. God, however, is not obliged to grant humans this grace. Moreover, because God's goodness has no limit and as, at every given moment, there is always something better than what is good and more advantageous for humans, God is not obliged to do what is best for them. What God can do is to endow humans with the capability to make choices and to remove any impediments standing in their way by sending His prophets and revealing His messages.
The view here seems to be that God creates action but humans acquire (kasb) those actions of their own will. They are their own creators. Without wishing to negate...
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