List Q&A

Your question can be answered by understanding the real meaning of freewill. Freewill means the ability to choose good or bad without any influence from anybody or any factor or reason but out of one’s own decision. The choice to be good or to be bad is a result of many factors, all of them directly related to the one who decides and not to anybody or anything else. Some of these factors are:

1. The state of mind of the person and how he/she looks at life. Those who think in a wrong way usually choose bad thoughts and bad deeds. The mind that acknowledges the main facts of life is a clear mind and usually leads to rightful thoughts and deeds, while the person who insists on denying the main facts of life, or tries to bypass them, fails in achieving peace and success. The biggest fact in life is ‘The Creator of life’, Who has put a discipline of harmony between man and himself, man and others, and man and his Creator.

The mind that acknowledges the main facts of life is a clear mind and usually leads to rightful thoughts and deeds, while the person who insists on denying the main facts of life, or tries to bypass them, fails in achieving peace and success. The biggest fact in life is ‘The Creator of life’, Who has put a discipline of harmony between man and himself, man and others, and man and his Creator. 

Acknowledging this central fact makes one’s life in harmony, while denying or ignoring the discipline of life put by The Creator will definitely lead to bad life. So, understanding or misunderstanding life is crucial in shaping a man’s course of life as good or bad. It is his own decision which takes him by his own freewill to good or to bad.

2. One’s aims in life and how he/she wants to achieve them. As a result of his or her understanding or ‘misunderstanding’ of life, the aims of life are set by every person. Wrong aims like material desires, lust, fame, power, etc. naturally deviate man from right towards wrong, while right aims like gaining useful knowledge, doing good, helping others etc., make the person closer to success as far as he/she is focusing on and trying to achieve the noble aims. Sometimes some people have good aims but choose wrong ways to achieve their aims. That is why we need to be sure that not only are our aims noble, but so are our means.

Wrong aims naturally deviate man from right towards wrong, while right aims make the person closer to success as far as he/she is focusing on and trying to achieve the noble aims. Sometimes some people have good aims but choose wrong ways to achieve their aims. That is why we need to be sure that not only are our aims noble, but so are our means. 

3. The result of the conflict between intellect (Aql) and excessive desires - as this conflict is a reality in the life of every human being. Those who give their desires more than the balanced share, fall into bad actions, while those who have a control over their desires succeed in getting more freedom, dignity and self and others respect. It is altogether for the person himself or herself to choose, and there is no power whatsoever, in any inner or outer factor to compel or enforce human behavior. No doubt, the divine nature of man (Fitrah) which is inside every human being, always guides him/her towards good, but many people insist on going against it in favour of their excessive desires or misguided goals of life. As an example of the freewill, look at one of the greatest prophets, Noah (a.s.), who had his own son and wife going astray? On the other hand, look at one of the worst evil doers, Pharaoh, whose wife chose to be good. It is after all the human being’s own freewill, as Allah (s.w.t.) says in the Holy Qur’an:

“Verily, We have shown him the way, be he grateful, or ungrateful.”

Sayyed Mohammed Musawi

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Ref: www.wabil.info

The fine point to recognize is here, that we not imagine that there is a contradiction between the two. The fact is that we both accept God’s justice as well as the freedom and responsibility of His servants as well as unity and His rule over the entire universe of existence and this is that very thing which is known as the ‘middle way’ (something which is between two extremes).

Let us clarify this with an example as the issue is a very complicated one. Let us assume that you are traveling on an electric train and you are the driver of the train. A strong electric cable has been placed along the line of the train and the train is connected with a link to this electric cable and moves and moment after moment the electricity is passed to the locomotive in such a way that if for just one moment, the electricity to the locomotive stops, the whole train will stop. Without doubt, you are free. You can stop wherever you want and you can move at your own speed. But in spite of all of this freedom, the person who is sending the electricity can, at any moment, make you stop because all of your power and strength is that very electricity and he holds the key.

When we note this example with care, we see that even though one has such freedom, choice and responsibility, one is completely at the disposal of the power of another and these two do not contradict each other.

Now let us return to the main point. God has given us physical power or strength and from moment to moment, it continues and if it is cut off for even a moment, and our connection with Him be cut off, we would be destroyed. If we can do anything it is because we have strength which He has given us and it continues moment by moment and even our freedom and choice is also from Him. That is, He willed that we be free and by making use of this great Divine kindness, one can transform one’s self.

Thus, at the same time that we have free choice and a free will, we are in His grasp and we will never move beyond His realm. At the same time that we have strength and power, we are dependent upon Him and without Him, we will be destroyed and this is what ‘the middle way’ means because neither have we recognized any creature to be equal to God, which would bring multitheism nor do we believe creatures are obliged to act as they do which would bring oppression.

We have learned this lesson from our pure Imams, peace be upon them. Whenever they were asked, “Does anything exist between fatalism and conferring?” They said, “Yea. More extensive than the distance between heaven and earth.” ¹

[1] See Usul Kafi, vol. l, p. 121
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Ref: Fifty Lessons of Principles of Belief for Youths; Ayt. Makarem Shirazi; Translated by: Bahador Shirazian; Published by: Ahlul Bayt World Assembly

1. The Holy Quran praises man (mankind) in many ways, while, on the other hand, scolding and reproaching him in various verses. 2. Because of man's high potential, he is able to reach and ascend to the highest levels and ranks, and at the same time, is capable of sinking to the lowest. 3. Man is made up of two elements; one is his spiritual being and the other is, his materialistic being and all of the animalistic desires that accompany it. 4. Unlike other creatures, man has freedom of choice, choosing his way of life according to the conditions that he has determined. 5. Those who accept Allah’s guidance and do not show enmity towards it, and control their materialistic and animalistic desires achieve the high rank of “Khalifatullah” (being God’s vicegerent on earth).

Regarding the link and relationship between the soul and body, one must say that the body is one of the several degrees of the soul and spirit, resulting in the body being located in the soul and spirit, not the spirit and soul being trapped in the body, the reason being that according to the ‘Transcendent Philosophy” of Mulla Sadra or ‘Sadraism’, because of its existential power and comprehensiveness, the soul has different degrees in which the body is one of the lowest and one of its manifestations. Therefore, the right way of saying it is that it is the body that is inside the soul, not the soul that is inside the body.

The word "Wasilah" (means) has a wide range of meanings which include anything or any action that helps get nearer to Almighty God. In view of the fact that the universe has been created on the basis of the intricate system of cause and effect, causes and caused for guidance and perfection of mankind, and just as man’s natural needs are met through material causes, in the same way the divine blessings such as guidance, forgiveness, nearness to God and man’s promotion to higher spiritual positions are based on a particular system and that they are realized through specific causes and means without which it is impossible for man to get those blessings and to attain proximity to God. These means, without which attaining proximity is impossible, have been introduced in the Quranic verses and hadiths.