'we have choice but not free will'!

[RedSea]

s/alamu calaykum walalyal,

 

I just listened to Sh. Yusuf Estes explain the difference between having a choice and free will.

 

He made a point about humans not having a free will power and says that Allah only has such and we humans have a choice. Forexample: the choice to do bad or good.

 

Do you agree with the shiekh or not?

[Sincere]

Reminds me of a Friday Khutba I heard a while back. The sheikh emphasized that in these trying times too often our lack of appreciation clouds our judgments. Employing a couple of analogies he stressed that we often presume that our fortunes are a result of our choices, thus overlooking Allah’s Qadar. For instance, you go to a job interview and walk out an hour later with the Job. Now, do you leave there thinking, well I got the job because of my impressive resume, or because of my impeccable references, or do you say Alhamdulillah, I got it because of Allah’s will.

 

I’m inclined to agree with him, for we are merely mortal and as such are all governed by Allah’s supreme will.

 

P.s. Having a impressive resume or impeccable references is a choice we make.

[Sky Camel National]

Yes I agree too. I belive we are given a table full of oppertunites and the out come for us depends on how we play the cards on the table. In this sense even if an oppertunity does not appear on the table at that moment you still may be given that card through the will of Allah or what some may call a miracle. We could total mess up on what ever choice we make or be messed up by the choices of others but the will of Allah could still save you. That is the beatiful thing to belive in.

[Jamster]

Al Qadaa wal Qadar; the most complex aspect of Aqeedah.

 

I will sit this out and let Nur deal with it; he is our local sheikh.

[Nur]

Brother Waleed

 

Here is an answer to that question from another thread to Sister Warsan:

 

 

Warsan sis

 

Calaf is Somali analogue for Qadar in Arabic, it is one of the six pillars of iman, it comes in two flavors, Good and Bad.

 

If you take an internet Class with Proffessor Nur on Somalionline Open University, and pose this question to the Prof. He will explain as follows:

 

Miss Warsan, I have taught this class for five years, and explained many concepts to the best of my abilities, I have simplified complex concepts to make it a child play, but still a handful of my online students fail this class, not because i made them fail, but i can tell you who among my students is more likely to fail this course, and because its only five years, my prediction may not be that accurate, but its good enough for government work.

 

Now let us stretch this logic a lil further, say, you come back to this site as a grandmother some thrity years, and Prof Nur is still on Somaliaonline Islam boards, with residual experience of 35 years on likelyhood of Nomads passing the grade at the SOL Open Uni.

 

If you ask me again the same question, the Profs chances of accuracy increase.

 

Now, Allah SWT creates his creatures with a constant mix of intellectual, physiscal, spiritual capabilities, and against these capabilities he expects them to perform and deliver duties that are within their sphere of influence. ( Laa yukallifu Allahu nafsan illa wuscahaa) ( Allah does not demand from any soul to deliver more than its capacity)

 

Like the students analogy, Allah knows beforehand our choices and paths that we will take, and thus he records it in the Book of Qader, as the Book of Qadar is in a different domain of time-space than ours, the present, past and future in that book are contiuum with no breaks. ( The Quraan is a good example of a text treating the future as if happening now)

 

So Qadar in other words is Allahs knowledge of our choices.

 

Allah also interferes at times, we call them Miracles.

 

Allah does not on one hand make you responsible for your actions, and on the force you to do something, it beats the purpose of creation which is to test people of their response level for Allahs unrivalled surrender.

 

From Allah point of view, the past has already happened, its analogous to a movie that you have already seen, you pretty much know what is going to happen next, but that does mean that you have forced the events and actors.

 

 

Nur

[RedSea]

Thanks brothers. Wealth of knowledge spewed here.