In this way all those arts which lead to happiness, as
agriculture etc., would become useless. So also would become useless
all those arts the purpose of which is protection from, and repulsion
of danger as the sciences of war, navigation, medicine etc. such a
condition is quite contrary to all that is intelligible to man.
Now it may be asked that if the case is so, how is this contradiction
which is to be found both in tradition and reason to be reconciled we
would say, that apparently the purpose of religion in this problem is
not to divide it into two separate beliefs, but to reconcile them by
means of a middle course, which is the right method. It is evident that
God has created in us power by which we can perform deeds which are
contradictory in their nature. But as this cannot be complete except
by the cause which God has furnished for us, from outside, and the
removal of difficulties from them, the deeds done are only completed
by the conjunction of both these things at the same time. This being
so the deeds attributed to us are done by our intention, and by the
fitness of the causes which are called the _Predestination_ of God,
which He has furnished for us from outside. They neither complete the
works which we intend nor hinder them, but certainly become the cause
of our intending them--one of the two things. For intention is produced
in us by our imagination, or for the verification of a thing, which in
itself is not in our power, but comes into being by causes outside us.
For instance, if we see a good thing, we like it, without intention,
and move towards acquiring it. So also, if we happen to come to a thing
which it is better to shun, we leave it without intention. Hence our
intentions are bound and attached to causes lying outside ourselves.
To this the following words of God, refer “Each of them hath angels,
mutually succeeding each other, before him and behind him; they watch
him by the command of God.”[130] As these outside causes take this
course according to a well defined order and arrangement, and never
go astray from the path which their Creator hath appointed for them,
and our own intentions can neither be compelled, nor ever found, on
the whole, but by _their_ fitness, so it is necessary that actions
too should also be within well-defined limits, that is, they be found
in a given period of time and in a given quantity. This is necessary
because our deeds are only the effects of causes, lying outside us;
and all the effects which result from limited and prearranged causes,
are themselves limited, and are found in a given quantity only. This
relation does not exist only between our actions and outside causes,
but also between them and the causes which God has created in our
body, and the well-defined order existing between the inner and outer
causes. This is what is meant by Fate and predestination, which is
found mentioned in the Quran and is incumbent upon man. This is also
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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