Islamic Determinism

Welcome to a new series of 'Mike Learns About Islam and Writes About It So You Can Learn Too' (working title). I'm currently reading up on the fundamentals of Sunni Islamic Monotheism. Since the Qur'an is a very tedious and self-contradictory book, it doesn't give you a very clear idea of Islamic belief, which meant that generations of Muhammad's successors have had to perform arduous exegesis to figure out what God was supposedly going on about. Some Muslims say that this is part of the text's holiness: God speaks, through the Qur'an, differently to each person. However, this means that it's very easy to create-your-own Islam to suit your existing prejudices and ideas, hence there are a billion interpretations of what Islam means. There are only two beliefs unifying all Muslims: (a) there is one god, Allah, and (b) Muhammad was his prophet. To quote one author: '[Muhammad] left serious theological difficulties to his more reflective successors'.

With that disclaimer out of the way, let's learn about one Sunni Muslim's interpretation of Islam. He's got a B.A., M.A. and Ph.D in Islamic theology and has been a university professor in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, and the book is apparently quite popular in Muslim communities, so we can assume his interpretation is fairly orthodox.

One of the things brought up in the first chapter is a heresy that has re-emerged again and again in Islamic culture throughout history. It's something that people really like to believe in. It's very important in many branches of Christianity.

Free will.

In Christianity, free will is often used as part of the explanation for the existence of evil in a cosmos created by a good God: true free will entails the ability to choose evil over good; freely-chosen good is greater than forced good, the existence of evil is a price worth paying (Benjamin Franklyn: 'They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety').

None of that in Islam. God created everything and predetermined everything. Which means that God created (a lot of) people with the intention of making them suffer because they did what he decided they would do, giving them no choice in the matter.

Some Qur'an verses against free will:

'Allah created you and whatever you do.' 

'It was not you who threw when you threw, but it was Allah who threw.'

'No calamity strikes except by Allah's permission'

'If the whole of mankind gathered together in order to do something to help you, they would only be able to do something for you which Allah had already written.'

'Had I wished, I could have granted each soul its right guidance. But My decree is binding: I shall fill Hell with both jinn and humans.'

'You did not slay them; it was Allah who slew them.'