If we think of the absence of human choice, then we have to think of the absence of the act of creation, because human beings choose and God creates what they have chosen.
If we are clear with the statement above, then we will not get confused with the following illogical reasonings:
- Since God determines everything, it does not matter if I choose it or not, He will do it anyways. Think about it, don’t you have a freewill to do something?
- I have decided about something and when I choose, it is as if God follows according to my choice. My choice does not create and guarantee the result. Think about it, how can we say that God’s Absolute Knowledge is dependent upon my decisions?
Think about it seriously, why do we bother about our freewill if God has already determined something. In our living here our freewill exercises its freedom, my responsibility lies in thinking about my freewill along with God’s will of me choosing and Him creating. We must bear in mind that when I choose, I am not the one operating in this world, it is God that is operating here. When I think of the matter in contrast with God’s decision and my freewill, I have to think of them at the same time. For example, if I move my pair of glasses from the table to my bag, I just chose to follow the act (order), but the action and result, is created by the Order-er of the universe i.e. God. If you never think of your usage of freewill, you cannot fathom God’s will. When I think of God’s will, it must be in relation with my exercise of freewill together.
As mentioned in previous sessions, we must think of the act of creation in the spacetime dimension. Time is how we see the execution of the act of creation. If there was no act of creation, there would be no time. Time means the continuous act of creation. Just like a timelapse video of a seed becoming a shoot shows the moments of the act of creation in time, similarly when I move the glasses from point A to point B, I am just exercising my freedom to choose to move the object freely, but I am not giving existence to the act of creation i.e. motion. It is not an easy concept to comprehend, because we are not used to thinking like that as we use languages such as I cook, I walked, I spoke to my advisor, I used this laptop etc. Practically speaking, within the field of our freewill, I have chosen to pursue an act of creation, but I have to realize and question whether it was me who gave existence to the action because any action takes place within the spacetime dimension which I have no control over. Again, spacetime means creation. Another example of illogical reasoning is, if someone says that I have not exercised my freewill, then we cannot question what God would do because it becomes a logical fallacy.
The relation of our freewill in connection with God’s will can only make sense when we talk of it thoroughly as we are doing in these series of sessions, however, in our practical life, we don’t feel any comfort with how life is going because we mix up God’s Absolute Power with our freewill. When we talk about our practice of free choice, we talk as if we are the doer, creator and making the act and the achieved results. Similarly, when we talk from God’s perspective and the creation of the action, we think that our choices have no significance. We must understand with our consciousness that I am choosing and God is creating. If I think of the absence of my choice, I have no right to speak about the act of creation of God, because as far as my freewill and responsibility is concerned, there is no connection in terms of me and creation. At the same time, if you do not choose, then the results are not created. For example, if I do not move the glasses from point A to point B, it means that I have decided not to do anything, which is a choice. That is, we cannot talk about God’s Absolute will if we have not done our part and exercised our freewill. When it comes to our prayers not being answered, we must think of this matter in terms of what am I doing from my side and how am I using my freewill to get the results? As I use my freewill, accordingly the results are created by God.
There are 2 types of Divine Determining as we studied previously in these series:
- Evident Divine Determining: The order, laws and principles in creation i.e. what we know and observe.
- Theoretical Divine Determining: There are lots of things that are hidden from our purview and we do not know.
We must bear in mind that there are lots of things that we do not know in creation. For example, do you know what will happen in the next 5 minutes ? No. But in the laws of creation, you have some knowledge such as if you sow the seed, the plant must grow, God does not change the order. Therefore, as long as you know the order, you get the desired results and that much you get from following it. We do not know what will happen tomorrow as far as how people use their freewill. For example, someone may come and step into my glasses in the next 5 minutes. We do not know. Or a bird may come to eat the plant tomorrow. Again, no one knows. Therefore, we must think of the Divine Determining matters from all these discussed aspects.
Comment: If I just follow the order in creation, it seems that I am praying, therefore the verbal prayers become redundant.
In reality, our execution of freewill is nothing but prayers. As we pray verbally, we train our emotions and feelings to confirm our reality. For example, “O God! I cannot get this, it is in your power, please do it for me”. That is supplication which is acknowledging your reality. When you acknowledge your reality, you educate and train your feelings about who you are and who your Lord is. Let’s say someone finds it difficult to wake up for the morning prayer (Fajr). They pray, “Please God! Enable me to wake up in the morning.” While I am praying, I am acknowledging my weak point and working to combat it. That is how the creation is taking place. The prayer and supplication is not making God do something for me, rather I am re-establishing my reality before God. This acknowledgment of my reality is the purpose of prayer. We are created with this quality i.e the more we pray, the stronger our prayer via using our freewill becomes. If you pray a lot about wanting to wake up for Fajr, the more likely you will wake up in the morning. The way that I am created enables my freewill to execute the results in the form of a choice i.e. as much as I pray, that much I am created with this ability. Just as an athlete works out their muscles, the more the muscles become stronger. That is the physical side of our human experience. As far as the spiritual side is concerned, the more I pray, the stronger my prayer by exercising my freewill becomes. The purpose of prayer is not to make a contract with God that I will ask and He will make, rather it is a contract within yourself i.e. the more you pray, the stronger your freewill grows. The general common misunderstanding of prayer is bargaining with God i.e. I will ask and He will do it for me.
Comment: How do we bridge the gap between the acknowledgment of our reality in these discussions and keeping that acknowledgment alive during the various times of the prayers throughout the day?
Let’s say that as a student, you cannot concentrate in your Math class at 8 am. You supplicate to God to help you concentrate in Math class better. When you do that, you are supporting your freewill and the ability to grow to become stronger to concentrate in Math. You sleep early and setup an alarm to wake up early. Because of getting a good rest, following God’s order, now you can concentrate better and not fall asleep in the morning class. All this is facilitated by God once I decide to use my freewill to concentrate better.. Serious Islamic Scholars say that the results of the response of the prayer lies within itself. Just as a Math teacher gives you lots of exercises to practice to master a concept, each exercise becomes a prayer for you to perform. Similarly, the more we pray, the more we realize ourselves and our reality. The more we acknowledge our reality, the more we understand that we have to ask God to create for us by using our freewill.
We can only ask for what is logical and we cannot ask God to create something that is irrational. For example,I know that tomorrow, the sun will rise at 5:45 am and if I pray to God “O God please make the sun rise at 6:45 am tomorrow”, will this prayer be accepted? No. It is against the evident Divine Determining and God does not change His order and way of creating (sunnatullah). Such prayers are disconnected from my usage of freewill and it is a waste of time, because it has nothing to do with my responsibility. On the other hand asking God by praying to enable you to wake up for Fajr means that you are consolidating your choice about that subject. Additionally, if you ask your family or friends to wake you up early, then you are using your freewill for its purpose, which is a prayer. If you realize that by doing all this you are obeying God’s order, this consciousness then becomes a worship of God. If you are not conscious of this, then your freewill becomes stronger but the act does not become worship of God.
When we exercise our freewill, we have to understand that I am obeying God’s order. If I am conscious of it, my ordinary actions become worship of God. That is why we are created, to worship God. Worship of God cannot be reduced to the 5 daily prayers only. Every act of the practice of freewill can be turned into a worship of God.
Comment: How can we prevent ourselves from getting into calamities despite verbally praying for protection?
When you sit in your car and say bismillah (In the name of Allah) before driving, you are conscious of God’s order and you are expected to obey God’s order. One part of the order is that you have to watch out for yourself, be prudent and be conscious of it. As we start to pray, we are internally adjusted to improve and strengthen our consciousness. It may not be a physical ability but more so being careful, determined and becoming aware of yourself and what you are doing. That is God’s response to you. You are not creating and developing yourself. You are asking God and God automatically answers you. For example, you say “O God please protect me from the disaster of an earthquake”. Your duty is not to pray to not die, rather your duty is to acknowledge that an earthquake happens at the will of God according to His way of creating within the order of the universe which has already been established. An earthquake does not happen haphazardly for it is within an order. There are no accidents in creation, the order is the choice and decision of the Creator. When you follow the order, you are acknowledging that you cannot protect your life but the Creator of the universe is operating in this world, and so you seek refuge with Him alone. I have no say and no power to interfere with the order of the universe. That is the purpose of your existence, to acknowledge this reality.
When you ask God for something, it does not guarantee that it will happen, but it guarantees your purpose of existence which acknowledges your need of God. We are not in this world to pray not to die. Sooner or later, we will die. We seek refuge with God from the calamities means that I acknowledge that I cannot guarantee anything. That is the purpose of prayer which is to acknowledge my status, the status of the Creator and to ensure what is the relationship between me and my Creator.
If you say that since it is not going to have an effect at all, why bother asking God to protect you from the disaster of the earthquake? Praying does not guarantee protection from calamities, even the Prophets were defeated in wars despite following proper order in creation. Again, the purpose of prayer is not to guarantee the result, rather it is using our freewill to acknowledge what my status is in this universe. When you verbally pray to God to protect you from calamities, you are fostering your awareness of the possibility of an earthquake. As a result, you take necessary precautions, such as make sure to buy a home that is sturdy and not in an earthquake prone area, for example. This prayer increases your awareness of your reality and fosters it. Through the prayers, I am making progress in my worship of God which is to acknowledge my reality. Alas, we have turned prayers into a means of bartering with God, and that is not a sincere prayer. A sincere prayer is the natural result of our worshipful position in the world. When we follow the order, we must have the consciousness that we are supplicating to God asking Him to make us more conscious of our status in this world. As we discuss these subjects, it is a prayer where we are becoming more aware of our reality in this world.
The act of prayer is acknowledging, putting into practice your reality, where consciousness is practiced, your language is practiced, your feelings are also being fostered with the realization that I cannot guarantee my life in this world. While you are praying, you are exercising your freewill. You have to consciously use your freewill. While you are using your freewill by verbally saying, “O Allah! Protect me from calamities (museebah)”. While you are using your freewill like this, you are confirming and reconfirming your status in this world that you are needy and you need to take protection from the Owner of the order of this universe. That awareness is strengthened and that is using your freewill.
Let’s say that you sit here and are not paying attention to the discussion. You are praying not to understand. The more you pray, the more your abilities develop in that way of not listening to the speech carefully. Your prayers are accepted through our own exercising our free will, because we are encoded with this ability. The more you pay attention to something the more your ability to get it develops. While you are praying to be guided amongst the righteous, it is an effort because you are bringing the acknowledgment of your reality that you are in need of entering Paradise and you are in need of God’s Mercy coming down to you, or God’s merciful treatment to you. You are acknowledging and practicing it. Your consciousness becomes brighter, and your awareness develops that you are in need of Paradise, how can I get it, who can give it to me i.e. eternal happiness. Your consciousness is being improved, that is how human beings make progress. Psychology says that you are conditioning yourself, which is their interpretation. You have to choose among these options, either you condition yourself or you are created with a disability. Through this type of creation, your Creator is responding to you back, that is how we are created. The prayer has its own response within itself. The Quran does not say, whenever I want, I will accept it from you, rather, pray and I will respond. Our misunderstanding of response is to ask God and get the results that we are seeking.
We must be aware that the nature of prayer is like setting a routine. For example, when you eat breakfast everyday at 7:30 am, by 8 am you start feeling hungry. In the evening, you start feeling sleepy at 10 pm. We are set automatically like this. Think of it with your feelings, awareness and consciousness. We have a spiritual routine to take care of as well, not only a physical routine. As a result of disciplining our physical routine, our human side gets activated as well. Our human side adopts itself with the condition of the body. Therefore, we should never abandon the prayers and supplication, because it is doing our spiritual exercise, and that is the only way we develop our consciousness of worship while we are praying. Furthermore, we should never bargain with God when we pray. Just like people do physical exercise to give a shape to the body, we must do spiritual exercise to give a shape to our human side.
The purpose of our existence is to acknowledge what we are, and our reality, that is submission. Prescribed prayers are nothing but responding to our reality.
Earlier Version of the notes are below:
If we think of the absence of human choice, then we have to think of the absence of act of creation because human beings choose and God creates what they have chosen.
It is important to pay attention to the above statement so we can avoid the following pitfalls:
- If I would not have used my freewill, would God still have created it?
- Can we say that God’s decision is dependent on my choice?
- We cannot change God’s decision.
- I have to worry about exercising my freewill effectively.
Example: When I move an object from point A to point B, it may seem that the object got moved because of my action.
- As far as creation is concerned, if I use my freewill to move the object from point A to point B the result is created by the Creator. We all know that in order to create a movement in a moment the whole universe needs to be created. It is not our freewill which is giving existence to the whole universe. It is The Creator God who is operating in this world.
- In my sphere of freewill (space-time where I experience my freewill), when I think of the matter in contrast with God’s decision and my freewill, I have to think of them at the same time together.
False Question: What would happen if the object gets moved from point A to point B?
- If I do not think of my usage of freewill, I cannot think of God exercising His Absolute freewill.
- I have to connect my exercising of my freewill with His Absolute freewill because my freewill is given to me by Him to be used freely by me.
Correct Reasoning: I have chosen to move the object from point A to point B. The result is created by God.
- I am just using my freedom to make the choice.
- I am not given the power to create the existence of this action of motion.
Note: Whatever happens in this world, we have to think about its happening within the space-time dimension.
Recap: Any action takes place within space-time. Space-time means “act of creation”. If there was no “act of creation”, we would have no space-time.
SPACE= The appearance of the act of creation within our perception.
TIME= The execution of the act of creation.
- We have to be conscious that: I choose and He creates.
- If I think about the absence of my choice, I have no right to speak about His act of creation. As far as the sphere of my freewill is concerned I have to think of both of them together. The order of His act of creation does not change. My using the freewill and His act of creating takes place together. As if one asks if I do not sow the seed does the tree grow? It is the order of the act of creation that the tree is created together with the seed. Thinking of the absence of the seed does prevent me asking if God creates the tree or not without the seed. It is God’s choice to establish the order within which He always creates the tree with a seed. I am observing His order and I am expected to think within His order.
There are two types of Divine Determining-
1/ Evident: The way the universe is created i.e. the laws of the act of creation.
2/ Theoretical: Things that we do not know. Unexpected events that we never anticipate.
In both 1 and 2, we have to bear in mind that: In the laws of creation, there is no change. God keeps His order.
While I am consciously exercising my freewill, it may seem as if prayers become redundant. Prayer is not redundant because:
a) In reality, our execution of freewill is nothing but prayer.
b) As we pray verbally, we train our emotions/feelings.
For example: You are determined to get up in the morning for Fajr prayer. You may even say: “Oh God! I cannot do this, it is beyond my power. You do it for me, I know only You can. Oh God! Please enable me to get up in the morning”.
- We are confirming/establishing our reality. This is supplication.
- Supplication is acknowledging our reality.
- When you acknowledge your reality, you train your feelings.
- While I am praying, I am acknowledging my weak point and consolidating my weak point with the prayer. That is how creation is taking place.
- The prayer/supplication is not making God do something for you but on the contrary, it is reestablishing your reality before God.
- This acknowledgment of my reality is the purpose of prayer.
- The way I am created enables my freewill to execute the result in the form of a choice.
How can I transform my usage of freewill into Worship of God?
The Purpose of prayers is not to sign a contract with God, the contract is within your awareness of the fact that while exercising your freewill you are not creating but asking the Creator to create it for you.
- Physical side of human experience: The more I workout, the stronger my muscles get.
- Non-physical side of human experience: The more I pray the stronger my abilities to exercise my freewill get.
Example: A student may have a hard time concentrating in class. He prays: “Please Allah! Help me concentrate”.
- By doing so, he is supporting his freewill and his ability to grow: That is the creation of God.
- The response of the prayers lies within itself.
Analogy: A student in a Math class is learning new topics. After leaving the class, the student is expected to do the exercises to fortify his comprehension of the subject. The more exercises the student does, the faster he/she will solve the problems and the easier the topic becomes for the student.
- Similarly, every event/exercise in our life is a form of prayer. The more we pray, the more we realize our reality.
- The more we acknowledge our reality, the more we understand that we have to ask God to create it.
- How can I ask him? By using my freewill:
- If I am aware that while I am exercising my freewill in fact I am asking God to create the result for me. This is a form of worship.
- If I think that I am asking the change, luck or nature, this is the worship of them.
- We ought to exercise our freewill to make our abilities stronger.
Example: If I am firmly determined to wake up at Fajr, I have to set up an alarm. If I follow the order with consciousness, then it becomes a worship of God.
- When I am exercising my freewill, I have to realize that I am obeying God’s order. If I am conscious of it, my ordinary actions become worship.
- When you say Bismillah before starting anything, you are acknowledging that you are conscious of God’s order. We are internally created with the ability to strengthen our feelings. The more we exercise our freewill consciously, the more aware we become of ourselves.
- Our development is God’s response to us.
In terms of our attitude towards natural calamities such as an earthquake, our duty is to acknowledge that earthquakes happen with the will of God based on the established order of the universe.
- The order is the choice and decision of the Creator. You are acknowledging that you cannot protect your life; the Creator of the universe is operating on it.
- I have no power to interfere with the order of the universe that is the purpose of existence.
- To seek refuge with God from calamities means that I acknowledge that I cannot guarantee anything. That is the purpose of prayer.
- The purpose of the prayer is not to guarantee the results but it is to use our freewill:
- to acknowledge my reality.
- to acknowledge the power of my Creator.
- to strengthen the relationship between me and my Creator.
Prayers also foster our awareness. Through prayers, I am making progress in my worship of God. My language and feelings are fostered as such that: I realize that I cannot guarantee my life in this world. Prayers are accepted through your creation:
- The more you pay attention to something, the more your ability to get it develops and you are on your way to follow the order. This is growth!
- If you are not paying attention to something, it means that you are praying not to develop this ability.
- In and of itself, prayer is an hoice. Example: “I am in need of Paradise. How can I get it?”
- You are bringing the need of the reality that you need to enter Paradise. You are needy and you need God’s mercy coming down to you.
- You are acknowledging it and your consciousness becomes brighter. Your awareness develops.
- The prayer has its own response within itself. See verse below:
Your Sustainer says: “Call unto me and I shall respond to you”. (40):60
- Our Creator has created us in a way that our biological clock gets adjusted to our daily schedule. For example: if I go to bed at a specific time every day, I will automatically get sleepy around that time every day.
- Similarly, we also have a spiritual clock which encompasses our emotions, feelings and consciousness. We need to adjust them according to our awareness of existence.
Never abandon prayer; because that is the only way we develop our consciousness of worship. Your purpose of existence is to acknowledge what you are. You have to relate your existence to the existence of the universe.
- I am here to acknowledge my reality:
- I am created.
- I am needy.
- I am totally dependent.
- I cannot create anything.
- In this universe, we are given the capacity to introduce our real Owner to our human side.
- All needs are given to us to enable us to know that we are in need of a Creator. That is worship.
- We are here to get to know who my Lord is. How can I practice my worship of reality here?
- Our duty is to introduce our soul (rooh) to its source (Lord). That is the covenant and we are here to exercise it.
- Whether I acknowledge God or not, I still obey the order. Similarly, if a person commits suicide, while attempting the means he is still obeying His order in the creation.
- My responsibility is to become aware of my reality.
- Every time I put my reality into practice and become aware of it, I am improving my awareness of my Creator. This increases my imaan/belief: That is why I have to constantly remind myself of who I am.
- If I do not improve my awareness of God, it means that I am not acknowledging God and yet I am using all the tools provided by Him. I am not working on the covenant.
Therefore, we cannot say that if I did not choose a thing, it would still be created because God decided to create that thing. We do not know what God has decided. We cannot speculate about God. What I witness here is this: I choose and He creates within the order He has put in this universe. I have to ask Him to create what I want to be created within the order He has put in the universe.
- Whether I am conscious or not, I am still asking something to be created.
- Attitude of the believers: Anything that I choose is created within the order. The order has been established by a conscious being.
- Attitude of the unbelievers: This is not the order created by God; it’s the order happening by itself.
- If you want to be rich, you have to acknowledge that you cannot be rich by yourself. You need someone to give wealth to you. By obeying His order, you are expected to be aware that you are worshiping Him.
- Any kind of prayer is enhancing our awareness of our reality.
- Only through acknowledgment, we fulfill our worship.
- There is no way we can get out of following the order of the universe: Everything we do is the obedience of the order.
- To be aware or not to be aware is my choice.
- We are here to develop our relationship with our Creator.
But we should never forget that we do not know the order in its entirety. There is always a room for “Theoretical Divine Determination”.
- We can never comprehend the order in its entirety.
- Example: A person gets invited to a dinner at a restaurant. He is happy and he eats the food which was spoiled.
- I would never know whether I followed the order in its entirety. I can only follow the order that is known to me to the best of my abilities.
- We should never judge God. We may think that He is not accepting our prayers but in fact He is responding in a way that we may not realize.
- God always responds within the order of creation.
Open the link below for the second half of the recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stt_7GaVjv4
In the scripture we hear that God has created me so that I worship Him. What am I expected to do here? I must become aware of God, be introduced to who my Lord is, who my Owner is, which is what worship is. All my ritual actions, good actions, my needs are given so that I recognize that I am in need of my Creator. We cannot guarantee anything in this world by ourselves. We are here in this world to get to know who my Lord is. In theory it is very simple, but we need to practice this regularly. Our cultural understanding may be that prayer is my religious duty otherwise I would be put into hellfire. We should notice that my praying is a means to getting to know who my Creator is. We must know the reality of our belief. What does it mean to be a Muslim, to worship God, what am I expected to do here? My duty is to introduce my spirit/soul to its origin, where it came from. Whatever I do, I follow the order of creation and whether I am aware of it or not, I am obeying God. My responsibility is to become aware of this and improve the awareness of my Creator. That is what we are here for to establish the covenant between my spirit and its Owner. I am here to exercise this, not only rituals which are the means to get closer to my Lord. I understand my reality of Absolute impotence who is in need of my Lord at every moment of my existence. I must constantly remind myself of my reality and my need for my Lord.
Even if one rejects God, they are still living in this world which is His and whatever they do they are obeying the order He has set up, eating the food He has provided. In a way, they are still worshiping God but not consciously. For example, when a parent gives a room to his child and the child gets angry and says that “I am going to my room”. The room he goes to is provided by the parent.
“Therefore, we cannot say that “if I did not do something, it would still be created because God decided to create that thing”. We do not know what God has decided, we cannot speculate about God. What I witness here is that I choose and He creates within the order He has put in this universe. As conscious beings we must decide whether the order exists by itself or has been established by the Conscious Lord of the universe.
Something missing by some is that If I am a student and want to pass my final exam, just by praying to God is not enough, I have to study hard to pass the exam. This is part of following the order in creation. To pray verbally is not enough, I must work towards it. However, what is the point? While I am praying, I must also exercise my freewill within the order to acknowledge that I do not create, my Lord creates, and I am needy of Him. It is through acknowledgement of my Lord that I accomplish my worship. Otherwise, it is pointless. For example, I want to get married and have a family life which I obtain and then I die. We must get out of the horizontal relationship and include the vertical relationship with the One who owns this universe. I am expected to worship Him, become aware of Him in whatever I do.
“We should never forget that we do not know the order in its entirety. There is always room for theoretical Divine Determining, things that I do not know from the order of the universe.” For example, I am hungry and need food. Someone took me to a restaurant to eat. I did not know that the food was old and harmful to me. I cannot comprehend the order in its entirety. I cannot make judgements that God has accepted or did not accept my prayers which are according to my understanding. In every case, God responds because we cannot get out of the order of the universe. When we use our abilities, we can only use the abilities that He has given to us. God accepts our prayers within the order that He has established in this universe which I cannot get out of. That is our reality which the Qur’an explains with verse 55:33.
يَـٰمَعْشَرَ ٱلْجِنِّ وَٱلْإِنسِ إِنِ ٱسْتَطَعْتُمْ أَن تَنفُذُوا۟ مِنْ أَقْطَارِ ٱلسَّمَـٰوَٰتِ وَٱلْأَرْضِ فَٱنفُذُوا۟ ۚ لَا تَنفُذُونَ إِلَّا بِسُلْطَـٰنٍۢ
55:33 O assembly of jinn and humans! If you can penetrate beyond the realms of the heavens and the earth, then do so. ˹But˺ you cannot do that without ˹Our˺ authority.