In this part of the article titled “Divine Will and Human will”, we shall continue about the relationship between the two elaborately.
Therefore, the human being can, on his own accord, will that which Allah wills and be satisfied with Allah’s existential and legislative satisfaction—refusing to want or to seek anything but that which Allah wants from him and that which He pleases.
In so doing, the human being has willed in accordance to the Divine generative and legislative wills, although the human will and potency themselves have been bestowed to the human being by this same Divine generative will, and as such his existence and will is an extension of the will and existence of Allah. This concurrence entails no contradiction and thus is not impossible for it is not the concurrence of two complete causes in the generation of one effect.
At the same time, human will and volition have not been denied to him. Rather, because Allah has given him the permission to will and choose, he determines what path he wants to follow and in doing so ends up willing what Allah has willed (1).
If the human being disobeys and violates the legislative will of Allah, doing what Allah dislikes, he has done so on his own accord and as such, has headed towards an awful fate. But this disobedience is not a violation of Allah’s generative will, for He has, through His own generative will, created the human being willing and volitional, and as such has given him the capacity to defy His legislative will.
Accordingly, this defiance does not signify the human being’s overcoming the will and power of Allah. He can deprive the hopeless human being of his will and power whenever He desires and it is concerning this that He says:
“Do those who commit misdeeds suppose that they can out-manoeuvre Us? Evil is the judgment that they make.” (2)
To sum up: In the realm of generative will and the act of Divine legislation itself, the human will cannot exert any influence whatsoever, and hence the question of the concurrence of Divine will and human will does not arise at this stage.
When it comes to the level of abiding by the legislative will, the human will is ontologically an extension of the Divine will. If he obeys the Divine injunctions, he has on his own accord aligned his desire to what Allah desires and as such, is pleased with the Divine generative will, and with this correct decision, has secured a felicitous end for himself.
If he disobeys, if he does not make Allah’s desire his own desire, he has acted only to his own disadvantage, without in any way damaging the creation or harming Allah for Allah has through His generative will, granted him the capacity to defy and disobey but has at the same time, through His legislative will, warned him of the consequences.
Thus, by making the wrong decision of disobeying Allah, he has incurred Allah’s wrath. Although he might arrogantly think that in doing so, he has overcome Allah’s will, the reality of the matter is that the creature can never, even while disobeying, escape the Divine domain, power, and will. The creature is always in need of that Most Sacred Essence. It is to this that the following verse speaks:
“Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever ill befalls you is from yourself.” (3)
Although in essence, everything is from Allah for nothing can occur without His consent, but the issue is that He does not deem misdeeds and evil appropriate for the human being, and it is the human being himself who, in misusing his free will, chooses evil.
However, we do admit that to conceive and comprehend the relationship of human volition to Divine will- i.e. the immutable cosmological system- is difficult. It is precisely for this reason that those who are not in touch with Divine revelation and the school of Ahlul Bayt (a.s) have strayed to antipodal extremes in this regard.
One group, the Mu’tazilites, concluded that the human being has been granted absolute autonomy, and as such is the only agent involved in his actions—and for this, they have been termed The Delegators; (4) another group, the Ash’arites, saw the human being as lacking any role in conducting his actions, hence being compelled in his actions, without free will and the right to choose- and for this, they have been termed The Compelled Ones. But the truth and the right path is the intermediate path, that is, neither the theory of compulsion nor delegation.
The generative will of Allah concurs with human will in a vertical manner. If the human being obeys, the Divine legislative will and the human will are in harmony, but if he disobeys, his will and action are despised by Allah. But the latter does not imply liberation from Divine dominion and sovereignty or the overcoming of the will and power of Allah. Such disobedience only signifies being removed from Divine mercy as a result of the individual’s own misuse of volition and free will.
NOTES:
1. Surat al-Insan (76), Verse 30; Surat al-Takwir (81), Verse 29.
2. Surat al-’Ankabut (29), Verse 4. Also see: Surat al-Zumar (39), Verse 51.
3. Surat al-Nisa` (4), Verse 79.
4. The name arises from the fact that they assume that Allah has delegated His authority to the human being in the realm of his volitional actions and so He does not take part in human actions. (Tr.)
