Assalamualaikum Huzoor, I would like you Huzoor to kindly explain the concept of free will in religion, you know in relation to the psychologist’s view on man’s behaviour, determined by genes and his environment and so on and so forth. On this subject also I have spoken quite a lot, but I know it’s difficult to dig out for all the old cassettes in which you’ll find this subject discussed, so I’ll briefly answer this.
The fact is that whatever the background one has inherited from genes or from one’s social order or family or schooling, still he has a free will. So that free will keeps on rising on the platform of his background, but that free will is never adversely influenced, he still exerts some free will. So the question which we have raised has been long discussed between philosophers and theologians etc and I know what it ultimately leads to.
So I can give you a short example of a Sindhi professor who once came to meet me in Hyderabad and he introduced himself to be a very very well-talented and educated person, as he was of course, and he told me that he has a simple question to ask, which he put to all the great scholars whom he met, but none could satisfy him, so please if you permit me I would like to ask that question to you, this was the same question he asked and I knew his background of course, I knew the background of this controversy, so I said instead of my answering you, I can ask you a few questions and you will answer yourself your question to your own satisfaction.
He was surprised, I said no, there is no question of being surprised, I will demonstrate it to you, I said since this morning when you have got up, when you got up, how many decisions have you made? He said many, I said don’t you remember that at each decision making you were offered two choices and you knew better than anyone else that one choice was wrong and the other choice was right, despite your background, despite everything you can put behind your making, still you enjoy a free will and that free will is exerted with the full knowledge, mostly not always, but mostly with the full knowledge of what is right and what is wrong.
So you go on taking your decision and for each decision you are responsible or are you not, so he nodded his head and I was surprised to find him, you know, to a man that who will immediately understand, I was surprised how he could not understand it before, he shook his head and said yes, that’s enough, so this is the answer, whatever your background, still your free will remains free and the choice you make is the choice which either will condemn you or will stand you in good stead on the day of reckoning, now as far as the background is concerned that is irrelevant here.
Because the inner truth always remain the inner truth, it remains the inner truth and the light can never be extinguished permanently unless you constantly ignore the call of your conscience and deaden yourself, that death is not caused by any genetical defect, but that death is caused by your persistent wrong decision until the voice of conscience is stilled forever, so from then on whatever you do, even if you don’t understand it, you are responsible for that, if that is the question you wanted to ask, then I have answered, if you had something else in mind.
Because I see some doubts on your face, then clarify the question please, you see the background of this question is of course tabligh, when I get the chance to talk about religion and you know say man has the will, the free will, the choice to choose the right religion, first of all they use this you know about the genes and the environment as an excuse for the people that you don’t know, but you see already I have explained to you, you can build this topic like I have and tell them that despite all the genes, every day you make decisions about right and wrong and you know at that time, so whatever the background of your upbringing or your inherent characters, you still are capable of taking decisions knowing them to be either right or wrong.
So because otherwise man cannot take decision, this is a psychological question, when you do not know whether this is right or that is right, then you are always in two minds, you don’t know what decision to take, so the decision means your knowledge about the goodness of one aspect and the bad aspect of the other aspect, so decision making in itself is a proof that man is responsible for his choices.
So the question is, does man have the right to choose between right and wrong, this is a very old question which has been debated by many philosophers, from a religious point of view as well as from a non-religious point of view, and as a result of this, there are people who say that we do not have the right to choose, that we are forced to choose, so this is a very detailed discussion, I don’t want to go into that right now because this will lead to a topic which cannot be handled. In brief, I have answered this question by saying that there was a professor in Sindh, he came to Hyderabad to meet me and before asking me a question, he gave me a preface and said that he has met many great scholars and I have always asked him whether we have the right to choose between right and wrong, and no one has ever given me a satisfactory answer, and if we have the right to choose because of our environment, and if we make decisions in accordance with the environment, then why has Allah the Almighty made us responsible for our choices, why is he asking us to make decisions, this is what he meant.
And then he said that we have no right to choose. This is the same topic which Taqi Mir has mentioned in one of his poems, this is an accusation by Muqtari that if you want to do something, you can do it, but he has defamed us by saying that we have no right to do anything. We have no right to do anything. And the first poem he has mentioned has raised the subject a lot, because we keep coming and going day and night, we don’t change because of someone’s tears or because of someone’s actions. So he says that we only have so much interference in your destiny, that we don’t interfere more than someone crying or laughing. This is a question which has been discussed by philosophers and religious people for a long time, and they want to prove that when a person is powerless, then why would he be questioned about his sins, and why would he be punished?
You will be able to see the light of this in my recorded discussion. But this professor, I knew that he must have had long discussions, so I told him that there is no point in getting involved in these discussions. I told him that instead of me, you will answer your own question. He asked me how? I told him that I will ask you, you tell me and you will understand. I asked him that since the time you have woken up in the morning, have you made any decisions or not? He said that yes, I have made many decisions. I said that every time you made a decision, did you know that there are two paths, one right and one wrong?
And did you think that you were in control at that time? If you wanted, you could have made the right decision, and if you wanted, you could have made the wrong decision. And your background, your society and your religion did not force you to make a decision at that time. Is this right or wrong? He said that it is right and the matter is over. He understood the matter. This means that regardless of your background, the power of God’s statement that He has bestowed upon man, which is mentioned in the Qur’an, that He has created man and taught him to speak, that remains alive forever. Except for the fact that a brainless person crushes this voice until it reaches the throat. It may wake up subconsciously, but it cannot be heard again.
So, man is responsible for that as well. Otherwise, no matter what kind of environment he is in, at every decision, he knows that there is a good path, and there is a bad path. If he wants, he can choose the good path, and if he wants, he can choose the bad path.
