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Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Destiny and Free Will

The following passage from ‘The Human Ego – His Freedom and Immortality’, the fourth lecture in The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam (1930-34) serves as a good introduction to Iqbal’s position on the issue of destiny and free will, which forms a central theme in his depiction of the Sphere of Mars in the fourth chapter of Javid Nama.

The Quran in its simple, forceful manner emphasizes the individuality and uniqueness of man, and has, I think, a definite view of his destiny as a unity of life. It is in consequence of this view of man as a unique individuality which makes it impossible for one individual to bear the burden of another, and entitles him only to what is due to his own personal effort, that the Quran is led to reject the idea of redemption. Three things are perfectly clear from the Quran:

(i) That man is the chosen of God:
  • ‘Afterwards his Lord chose him Adam for himself and turned towards him, and guided him’ (20: 122).
(ii) That man, with all his faults, is meant to be the representative of God on earth:
  • ‘When thy Lord said to the angels, “Verily I am about to place one in my stead on Earth”, they said, “Wilt Thou place there one who will do ill therein and shed blood, when we celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy holiness?” God said, “Verily I know what you know not’” (2: 30).
  • ‘And it is He Who hath made you His representatives on the Earth, and hath raised some of you above others by various grades, that He may prove you by His gifts’. (6: 165)
(iii) That man is the trustee of a free personality which he accepted at his peril:
  • ‘Verily we proposed to the Heavens, and to the Earth, and to the mountains to receive the “trust”, but they refused the burden and they feared to receive it. Man undertook to bear it, but hath proved unjust, senseless!’ (33: 72).

4 comments:

  1. hmm....very true indeed.

    I liked the passage of the first lecture...too...

    "When attracted by the forces around him, man has the power to shape and direct them; when thwarted by them, he has the capacity to build a much vaster world in the depths of his own inner being, wherein he dicovers sources of infinite joy and inspiration."

    And this one took my breath away....

    It is the lot of man to share in the deeper aspirations of the universe around him and shape his own destiny....by putting the whole of his energy to mould its forces to his own ends and puposes.
    And in this process of progressive change GOD becomes a co-worker with him, provided man takes the initiative:
    "Verily God will not change the condition of men, till they change what is in themselves" (13:11)



    hmm....I become so awestruct when I only think about it...how it make you feel..when you come to know that you have your GOD as your co-worker?

    Only all this time...HE is waiting for us to take the initiative....hmm....intresting.

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  2. “Free will” is really quite limited, despite belief that we control ourselves and our lives. We think we have endless choices...until we try to make them. Each decision must not only be based on what we “want to do,” but also on our own capabilities and what is expected of us. Nature and society imprison us, whether we like it or not. The key to release is mystical realization. All in One and One in All, the divine unity, opens the gate between heaven and Earth...between a universal consciousness and most people’s constrained awareness.

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  3. Point (iii) is new for me.

    Hmmm... Free personality...

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  4. free will is always confusing to me as we have rarely encountered with events when life is not imposed on us.
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    ReplyDelete