Page 157 - Quranic Wisdom - New.indd

Quranic Wisdom

option than to use the divine infrastructure. In terms of free-will,
he enjoys complete freedom, but in terms of infrastructure, he is
completely under God’s command.

There are three categories of Muslim scholars, each of whom
thinks differently on this subject—Qadriya, Jabriya and Wasatiya.
Wasatiya scholars believe in the above equation, that is, in terms
of intention and planning, man is completely free, but in terms
of implementation or actualization, man has no freedom. He is
compelled to find support from God.
According to the Quran, man is accountable before God.
This means that this accountability is confined to his intention
or free-will. His reward or punishment will be commensurate
with his intention and his right or wrong exercise of free will.
The above equation is a completely rational one. Man enjoys
free-will in the complete sense of the word, but he has no power
to create an infrastructure such as the life-support system or any
of the other things needed for the execution of his plans. So,
God Almighty has provided him with everything that is required
in a good infrastructure. Man has total liberty to exercise his free-
will in exploiting this infrastructure and, in doing so, experiences
no restriction whatsoever.

Man’s every action is being recorded by the angels of God
and according to this record, a person will be either rewarded
or punished on the Day of Judgement. As regards man’s
accountability, only one criterion will apply: whether man
exercised his freedom in a proper manner or he misused his
freedom.

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