Page 80 - World Religions I - Islam

o Muslim theologian Risaleh-i-Barkhavi:
 "Not only can He (God) do anything, He actually is the only One Who does anything. When a
man writes, it is Allah who has created in his mind the will to write. Allah at the same time gives
the power to write, then brings about the motion of the hand and the pen and the appearance
upon paper. All other things are passive, Allah alone is active."98
o Arabist and Islamic scholar Alfred Guillaume:
 "There are texts which clearly assert that man is responsible for his own actions, though the
majority of texts seem to assert that they are definitely decreed. The Mutazila [Islamic school of
speculative theology] dealt with these passages as best as they could by softening the language
of predestination, but still it could not be denied that the orthodox party had the Qur'an on their
side when they asserted that God's predestination was absolute. This view is borne out by the
chapter on predestination in the books of canonical tradition which do not contain a single
saying of Muhammad's which leaves freedom of action to man. Everything is predestined from
the first and a man's fate is fixed before he is born… Orthodox reaction to the doctrine of free will
took rather a strange form. The Mutazilites were dubbed dualists because it was said that by
their assertion that man has power' over his actions they made him the 'creator' of his works and
thus encroached on the almighty power of God, for there would be two creators of actions."99
o Respected Muslim theologian Al-Ghazali:
 "[Allah] willeth also the unbelief of the unbeliever and the irreligion of the wicked and, without
that will, there would neither be unbelief nor irreligion. All we do we do by His will; what He
willeth not does not come to pass. If one should ask why God does not will that men should
believe, we answer, 'We have no right to enquire about what God wills or does. He is perfectly
free to will and to do what He pleases.' In creating unbelievers, in willing that they should remain
in that state;...in willing, in short, all that is evil, God has wise ends in view which it is not
necessary that we should know."100

Why I stopped believing Islam is a religion of peace

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