Does God knows and records everything that is
going to happen? If so, where is our free will then?
Answer:
Allah knows
everything that will happen. The first thing that He created was the
"pen" and He ordered the pen to write. As mentioned in Al-Quran:
“Nun. By the pen and what they inscribe” (68:1). The pen wrote until it had
written everything that would happen. And then Allah began to create the
universe. All of this was already known to Him before He created it. He does
have absolute and total control at all times. There is nothing that happens
except that He is in control of it. “And with Him are the keys of the unseen;
none knows them except Him. And He knows what is on the land and in the sea.
Not a leaf falls but that He knows it. And no grain is there within the
darknesses of the earth and no moist or dry [thing] but that it is [written] in
a clear record.” (6:59).
Now as we all
know, God is all-powerful, and He is all knowing. Then He would naturally know
everything that happens before they happen by virtue of his all knowing perfect
knowledge. God does not need to wait until a man do something for him to learn
about it, if that were the case, that God did not know what that man would do
until he do it, this would then mean that God is not all knowing, and if God is
not all knowing and is not perfect in His knowledge then He cannot be God. So
again, based on the fact that God’s knowledge is perfect, that He knows
everything, this means He also knows what we will do before we even do it
because His knowledge is perfect.
Even though God
has already recorded everything that will happen, again this is based on His
perfect attribute of knowledge, we, as a servant are not privy to that recorded
document. So while God knows what we will do today, tomorrow, and next week, we
ourselves do not know. Thus, people cannot use this as some excuses that their
free will is somehow determined and they cannot really do anything because what
will happen will happen. Hence, what happens is based on our choices, we cannot
simply put our hands up and say ‘well my actions have already been recorded so
who cares’ because we have no idea about our future actions, at the end of the
day it is our choices that are being made that lead to the actions we are
doing.
So what is
recorded, is based on what ourselves chose to do, we were not forced to do it, we
ourselves chose to commit that action. Actually, Allah knows every result and outcome of the choices but He
let us to decide it. This means that at the core of everything will always be
our intentions. Whatever we intended, is what we will have the reward for. Each
person will be judged according to what Allah gave them to work with, how they
used it and what they intended to do with it.
As to respond to the atheists, they
should be given a simple example for them to perceive it easily. For instance,
there are two students A and B who want to be a doctor. Students A is
struggling in his studies meanwhile, student B keep enjoying his life and
neglecting his responsibilities as a student. After some years, finally,
student B achieves his dreams to become a doctor. From this example, God knew both students want to be a doctor based on His perfect
attribute of being all knowing, however He did not force or compel them to be a
doctor. They by their own free wills and choices, decided their own journeys.
As Muslims, we believe in Judgment Day. Allah tells us
that everything we are doing is being recorded and not a single tiny thing
escapes from this record. Even an atom's weight of good will be seen on the Day
of Judgment and even a single atom's weight of evil will be seen too. As stated in Al-Quran: “So whoever does an
atom's weight of good will see it, And whoever does an atom's weight of evil
will see it.” (99:7-8). The one who will bring the evidences against us will be
ourselves. Our ears, tongue, eyes and all of our bodies will begin to testify
against us in front of Allah on the Day of Judgment. None will be oppressed on
that Day, none will be falsely accused.
He
could have put everyone in their respective places from the very beginning, but
the people would complain as to why they were thrown in Hell without being
given a chance. This life is exactly that; a chance to prove to ourselves who
we really are and what we would really do if we indeed had a free choice. Allah
knows everything that will happen, but we do not.
So in conclusion,
according to Islam God knows everything, this therefore means He knows what you
will do before you do it, He does not need to wait for something to happen in
order to find out, He already knows due to His perfect knowledge. With this
perfect knowledge of His, He has recorded down everything that will happen. However
so just because everything has been recorded down, does not mean we are negated
our free will, what has been recorded down is based on God’s perfect knowledge
of what we will do based on the choices we made, it is not based on what God
will force we to do, and this is the key to understanding.
.
