Islam's Reformers .pdf

decrees or wishes to do it. Then he does it. For this reason,man does not have to do an action. He does if he wishes, andhe does not if he does not wish.Man’s wish to do an action necessitates his initialremembrance of that action by seeing, hearing or thinking aboutit; it has to occur to his heart. Man either wishes or not to do itwhen it occurs to his heart. For example, one may findsomething useful and do it, but someone else may find itunnecessary and may not do it. Who brings an action, itsusefulness or unnecessity to the hearts of those who are said tobe free in their actions? Why does not one’s thought occur toanother? If it occurs, why does it seem unnecessary to another?Those various reasons are not within man’s power. For thisreason, some Ahl as-Sunna scholars have said, “Men are freein their voluntary actions, yet they are not free but compelled intheir will and option.” Somebody said, “I do what I wish,” toHadrat Imâm al-Ghazâlî. Hadrat Imâm said, “Can you wish whatyou wish?” Hadrat Abû ’l-Hasan al-Ash’arî interpreted the âyatin the sûrat ad-Dahr of the Qur’ân as, “You wish only whatAllâhu ta’âlâ wills!” [1]Allâhu ta’âlâ declares: “Your Rabb creates what Hewishes. He alone opts, chooses. They do not have will andoption” (sûrat al-Qasas, 68); “Know for sure that Allâhuta’âlâ gets between man and his own heart” (sûrat al-Anfâl,24); “You cannot bring whomever you love to the rightcourse. Allâhu ta’âlâ brings to the right course whomeverHe wishes” (sûrat al-Qasas, 56); “Even if We sent downangels to them and made the dead talk in front of them andgave them everything they wanted, they would not believeunless Allâhu ta’âlâ willed so” (sûrat al-An’âm, 111);“Whomever Allâhu ta’âlâ wills to guide to the right path, Hewidens his chest for Islam, and He keeps the chest ofwhomever He wills to send astray so narrow and tight thatit is impossible for the truth to enter and for him to ascendto heaven” (sûrat al-An’âm, 125); and “Even if I want toadvise you, it will not avail if Allâhu ta’âlâ has willed thatyou remain in deviation” (sûrat al-Hûd, 34). The Mu’tazila whodisbelieve qadâ’ and qadar and those who follow them are[1]There is detailed information about qada’ and qadar in EndlessBliss II, 3.- 49 -