Seventh Lecture
The Clearest Proof
for free will

Man’s Conscience Categorically Rejects Determinism

Despite the fact that philosophers and religious scholars have advanced arguments and proofs of various kinds concerning man’s free will, we shall resort to the shortest and easiest argument in this regard, which is man’s conscience.

It is worth mentioning that everybody, theist and atheist alike the easterner and the westerner, the ancient and the modern, the affluent and the poor, the developed and the underdeveloped, all believe that law should govern and dominate human societies and that individuals should be responsible to carry out their duties and tasks at hand and that whoever violates law and order should be punished in some way.

In summary, the jurisdiction of law, the individual’s responsibility towards it, and the chastisement of law-breakers and wrong-dowers are those issues that all the wise men of the world would agree upon. It is only the savage who does not agree with these issues.

This issue, which is referred to as the general conscience, is the clearest reason to prove the existence of man’s free will.

How could man lack freedom of action and will and then be assumed responsible for the consequences of his deeds? Or how could man be considered obliged to obey the law, and be tried in lawful courts? Or how could he ever be proven guilty and then sent to jail or even be executed?

Man in this case would resemble the stones in an avalanche which cause the death of travelers on the road below.

It is evident that there are differences between a stone and a man. But if we deprived man of his free will, these differences vanish. Then both effects, being killed by a man or by falling stones, would be the same. The criminal’s urge to kill, would be considered outside his control, just like gravity lies outside the control of the falling stone. According to the proponents of determinism, there is no difference between these two sets of events, for both events have occurred outside the doer’s free will or control.

Now, we are faced with a choice: We either have to reject the common conscience of all members of the society and consider the act of punishing the wrongdoers and criminals as absurd and worthless or reject the proponents of determinism altogether. In this case, we will definitely select the second choice.

It is worthwhile to observe the fact that those who believe in deterministic ideology adhere to the theory of free will in practice when they naturally come face to face with the realities of life.

These kinds of people, when deprived of their rights or when bothered by wrongdoers, seek justice and ask for the punishment of wrongdoers.

Now, if man is not free in his actions, then why should he bother to complain, or seek justice?

Thus, this general conscience of the intelligent people of the world is a clear reason for the existence of free will in man and for the fact that man voluntarily accepts free will and has always been loyal to it. He cannot carry on with his daily life without it even for one day.

The great Islamic philosopher, Kw¡jah N¡¥ir al-D¢n ±£s¢, in his discussion on free will versus determinism states succinctly:

“The perception of the essentials and our conscience lead us to believe that all of our deeds are dependent on us.”⁽[1]⁾

The Religious Opposition to Determinism

What we have stated so far has been based on opposition to the school of determinism from the angle of the conscience of the world’s intelligent people, both theist and atheist. But from the religious point of view, we have another convincing reason against determinism.

There is a clear conflict between religion and determinism. If religious programs were based on determinism, every thing would be distorted.

This is because of the following reason:

We could never reconcile God’s justice, on which we have already had a lengthy discussion, with determinism. How could God force a person to carry out something and then punish him for it? This is in conflict with logic itself.

Thus, with a belief in determinism, the issues of spiritual reward, chastisement, Paradise and Hell are no longer valid.

Also the belief in the record of one’s own acts, the concept of the Day of Judgment, divine inquiry into one’s deeds, the idea of chastisement for wrong-doers and the topic of showing favor to well-wishers so vividly brought up in the sacred verses of the Holy Qur’¡n would all be unnecessary. This is because in accordance with such a view, neither a wrongdoer nor a well-wisher would have been free to do what he did.

Furthermore, in our first contact with religion we referred to the topic of “duty and responsibility.” But how is “duty and responsibility” related to a man who is not free in his actions?

Could you ever tell a man to stop his trembling hand when his hand naturally shakes due to his illness? Or could we ask a man to stop suddenly when he is running on a steep plain?

For this very reason, Imam `Al¢ (s), in a famous narration, says. The school of determinism belongs to the idol worshippers and the proponents of Shaitan:

“This is the statement of the idol worshippers, of God’s enemies and of Shaitan’s party.”⁽[2]⁾

THINK AND ANSWER

Eighth Lecture
What is the Intermediate School?

Delegation vis-à-vis Determinism

In the spectrum of determinism / free-will, there is a place for those who believe in delegation.

The proponents of this latter school contended that God has entrusted us with everything since our creation and He is absolutely not responsible for our actions; therefore, we are completely free to do anything we desire. Nobody can interfere with our work.

No doubt, this way of thinking is incompatible with the principle of Monotheism, which has taught us that everything belongs to God and nothing lies beyond His domain. Even our deeds, while we enjoy free will, are not outside His sovereignty, or else it would be blasphemy.

In other words: we must not believe in two Gods: one the Almighty God, the major God Who has created the universe, the other one the minor God, i.e., man, who is absolutely independent in his actions and autonomous in his deeds, so independent and autonomous that even Almighty God could not interfere in them.

This is blasphemy; it is worshipping two Gods. The crucial point for us is to recognize man to be a free entity that enjoys freedom of will and to acknowledge God as the real dominant entity who dominates all our actions.

The Intermediate School

The important issue here is these two positions do not in contradict each other. The crucial point is for us to believe in both God’s justice and in man’s freedom and responsibility on the one hand and in monotheism and God’s sovereignty and dominance over the whole universe, on the other. This is what we mean by the intermediate school (A school which lies between two extreme ideologies).

Now, due to the complicated nature of the issue, let us illustrate it with a clear example:

Suppose you are a train operator and a strong cable of electricity lies along the rails from which the locomotive receives its energy to move. Any time there is a lack of electricity this would force the train to stop.

No doubt, you are free to move around during the entire time of your journey. You are even free to stop the train, to add to, or to decrease the speed of the train. However, despite all this freedom of action, the man who is responsible for the electricity could stop you at any moment since the key to power lies in his hands.

When we observe the situation in the above example, we will see that while this man has freedom of action, he is under the domination of another power and these two situations are not contradictory.

Another Example

Suppose the nerves of someone’s hand have become paralyzed due to a certain disease or a disaster and he cannot move his hand. Also imagine that such a person could move his hand if he received electricity from some source.

If such a person, under such conditions, commits a crime, slaps somebody’s face or stabs an innocent person, he would be considered guilty by law since he was physically capable of the atrocity and was free to do so; capable and free man, according to law is responsible for his own acts.

However, the man who provides him with power to move dominates him despite the fact that he is free.

Now, let us return to our main topic: The Almighty God has provided us with strength, power, wisdom and intelligence. We receive these endowments every minute, and if we are disconnected from God, even for the slightest instance, we will be destroyed.

We owe our strength to Him, even our freedom of will stems from Him; this means that He has desired for us to be free and to stay on the road of perfection and progress.

Thus, we are constantly under God’s domination despite the fact that we are free to act and this domination is continual. We are nothing without His domination and this is the true meaning of an intermediate path: through the adoption of this option, we have neither posited any associate for God nor do we consider God’s servants as being forced to carry out their routine tasks, the result of which would be injustice.

We have learned this lesson from the Infallible Ones(s): Whenever they were asked if there was any road between determinism and delegation, they used to answer, yes, but this road is wider than the distance between the earth and the sky.

Determinism and Free Will in the Holy Qur’ªn

The Holy Qur’¡n explains this issue explicitly. It proves that man enjoys the principle of free will. There are hundreds of sacred verses in the Holy Qur’¡n which vividly prove this topic.

All the verses which deal with commands and prohibitions assume man’s free will. This is because if man were not free, the above three issues would be irrelevant.

All those verses which blame the evil doers and praise the well-wishers are related to man’s freedom to act or else blame and praise would be irrelevant.

All those verses which deal with the Day of Judgment and the Resurrection on the one hand, and reward and chastisement on the other, are related to man’s freedom of action. This is because if such freedom did not exist, the issues of chastisement and reward would be irrelevant, and the trial of the evildoers would be pure injustice.

All those verses which stress the fact that men are responsible for what they do, such as the following:

كُلُّ نَفْسٍ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ رَهِينَةٌ.

Every soul is held in pledge for what it earns. [Qur’¡n 74:38]

كُلُّ امْرِئٍ بِمَا كَسَبَ رَهِينٌ.

Every man is responsible for what he shall have wrought. [Qur’¡n 52:21]

And the like, vividly prove man’s free will.

Verses of the Holy Qur’¡n such as the following are also clear reasons for man’s free will:

إِنَّا هَدَيْنَاهُ السَّبِيلَ إِمَّا شَاكِراً وَإِمَّا كَفُوراً.

Surely, we have shown him the way: He may be thankful or unthankful. [Qur’¡n 76:3]

There are, however, some explanations on some verses of the Holy Qur’¡n which support the question of “the intermediate affair,” which have been interpreted by ignorant individuals as an argument for the belief in determinism. One such verse is the following:

وَمَا تَشَاؤُونَ إِلاَّ أَن يَشَاء اللهُ.

And you do not please except that Allah pleases; surely Allah is All-knowing, Wise. [Qur’¡n 76:30]

It is evident that this verse and others like it do not want to deprive man of his free will; rather, they show that while man is free in his will, he is under God’s domination at the same time.