Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom

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Divine Sovereignty and Human Freedom

• Islamic Perspectives

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Texts from the Quran

• Surah 54.49 All things have been created after
  fixed decree in proportion and measure.
• Surah 87.1-3 Praise the name of your Lord, the
  Most High, who has created all things and
  proportioned them who has ordained their
  destinies and guided them.
• Surah 9.51 Nothing will befall us except what
  God has ordained.
• Surah 14.4 God leaves in error whom he will and
  guides whom he pleases.

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What do the assigned texts say?

• Surah 8.53 God does not change the blessings he
  has bestowed upon men until they change what is
  in their hearts.
• Surah 13.11 God does not change a peoples lot
  unless they change what is in their hearts.

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See also Surah 74.38ff

• Each soul is the hostage of its own deeds. Those
  on the right hand will in their gardens ask the
  sinners, What has brought you into Hell? They
  will reply We never prayed, nor did we ever
  feed the hungry. We engaged in vain disputes and
  denied the day of Reckoning till the inevitable
  end overtook us.

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What is the issue?

• Some texts say that God is in control of every
  action. Everything is predestined, even the
  smallest human action.
• Other texts say that there is genuine human
  freedom and that humans are responsible for their
  choices.
• This has led to passionate debate among Muslims,
  since the Quran embraces both views.

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Two historical viewpoints

• Qadrians (Mutazilites) free will
• If man has no power to will or to do, then what
  is the difference between praising God and
  sinning against Him between faith and
  infidelity good and evil what is the use of
  commands and prohibitions rewards and
  punishments promises and threats etc.
• Asharians predestination, but some recognition
  of freedom vs. Jabrians

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Contemporary viewpoints

• Frederick Denny
• The doctrine of predestination has its basis
  in the Quran, which nevertheless does not
  unequivocally support the proposition that God
  decrees and determines all that happens from all
  eternity and records our acts and destinies
  down to the tiniest detail.

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Contemporary viewpoints

• Fazlur Rahman
• To hold that the Quran believes in an absolute
  determinism of human behavior, denying free
  choice on mans part, is not only to deny almost
  the entire content of the Quran, but to undercut
  its very basis the Quran by its own claim is an
  invitation to man to come to the right path.
  (Major Themes of the Quran, p. 20)

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A helpful clarification

• Rahman points to the texts such as we read for
  today. God does not arbitrarily seal peoples
  hearts, but does so because of peoples own
  actions.
• The psychological effects of a habit of good and
  evil