Such is also the case with the Traditions. The Prophet says, “Every
child is born in the true religion; his parents afterwards turn him
into a Jew or a Christian.” On another occasion he said, “The following
people have been created for hell, and do the deeds of those who are
fit for it. These have been created for heaven, and do deeds fit for
it.” The first Tradition says that the cause of disbelief is one’s own
environments; while faith and belief are natural to man. The other
Tradition says that wickedness and disbelief are created by God, and
man is compelled to follow them.
This condition of things has led Muslims to be divided into two
groups. The one believed that man’s wickedness or virtue is his own
acquirement, and that according to these he will be either punished
or rewarded. These are the Mutazilites. The belief of the other party
is quite opposed to this. They say that man is compelled to do his
deeds. They are the Jabarites. The Asharites have tried to adopt a mean
between these two extreme views. They say that man can do action, but
the deeds done, and the power of doing it, are both created by God.
But this is quite meaningless. For if the deed and the power of doing
it be both created by God, then man is necessarily compelled to do the
act. This is one of the reasons of the difference of opinion about this
problem.
As we have said there is another cause of difference of opinion
about this problem, than the traditional one. This consists of the
contradictory arguments advanced. For if we say that man is the creator
of his own deeds, it would be necessary to admit that there are things
which are not done according to the will of God, or His authority.
So there would be another creator besides God, while the Muslims are
agreed that there is no creator but He. If, on the other hand, we were
to suppose that man cannot act freely, we admit that he is compelled
to do certain acts, for there is no mean between compulsion and
freedom. Again, if man is compelled to do certain deeds, then on him
has been imposed a task which he cannot bear; and when he is made to
bear a burden, there is no difference between his work and the work
of inorganic matter. For inorganic matter has no power, neither has
the man the power for that which he cannot bear. Hence all people have
made capability one of the conditions for the imposition of a task,
such as wisdom we find Abul Maali, saying in his _Nizamiyyah_, that
man is free in his own deeds and has the capability of doing them. He
has established it upon the impossibility of imposing a task which one
cannot bear, in order to avoid the principle formerly disproved by the
Mutazilites, on account of its being unfit by reason. The succeeding
Asharites have opposed them. Moreover if man had no power in doing a
deed, then it will be only by chance that he may escape from evil,
and that is meaningless. Such also would be the case with acquiring
goodness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account