Read this: http://sunnianswers.wordpress.com/2...e-are-many-verses-and-hadiths-to-that-effect/ http://sunnianswers.wordpress.com/category/predestination/
Brother Aqdas: 'Ilm and Iradah, albeit linked, are different attributes. Allah both knew the possibilities, and determined one possibility i.e. your choice. This is the reality of the matter. However, we have a percieved choice, and it is by the mercy of Allah that he rewards or punishes us based on this. Thus, there is no room not to work. was-salam
would it be better to phrase it: whatever we choose is known by Allah. He has always known it [pre-eternally] and will always know it. sorry if i'm mistaken but the portion i have quoted may give the same impression as what nj was questioning that if Allah has determined it, we are no longer free to choose.
come on, brother! have you not studied basic 'aqidah? Allah has decreed EVERYTHING -- including how much food we'll eat and how much zina we'll commit. Does that mean we don't do anything? No. Just because Allah has determined it, since His knowledge is absolute, does not mean that we do not have a certain degree of percieved free-will. Whatever we choose has been determined by Allah -- yet we have the oppurtunity to choose, and either face reward or punishment, so act now before it's too late! This is the classical free-will debate, and I'm surprised you hadn't thought about this earlier, given your fammiliarity with the western tradition. was-salam
:s1: I read the following Hadith sharif online and although most of it Is clear I am puzzled by the first sentence as it seems to imply that It is already decreed by Allah Azza wa Jalla how much zina someone will do. Why then should a person be accountable from which there is 'no escape'. Prophet (صلى الله عليه وسلم) said: "Allah has decreed for every son of Adam his share of Zina, and there is no way to escape from it. The Zina of the eye is a glance, the Zina of the tongue is speaking, and the Zina of the mind is wishing and hoping; then the private part either acts upon this or it does not" (Bukhari, 11/26; Muslim, 2046). *
