This article is crucial for all Muslims. This article will expose not only the absurdity of the concept of Predestination in Islam but it will also reveal the damaging effects of this teaching on Muslims. It will reveal how the concept of Predestination actually invalidates all personal efforts of sincere Muslims to work out their salvation. In short, any personal endeavor by Muslims to work out their own salvation is futile in Islam. If you find this unbelievable, please read on. If you are a Muslim reading this, you owe it to yourself to know the truth.
All Source-Materials used in this article are taken from authentic Islamic sources. The Arabic term for Predestination is Qadar. In the language of the Qur’an, Qadar denotes the following:
- Predestination
- Preordination (Predetermination)
- Decree
- Destiny
To understand the meaning of Qadar or Predestination in Islam, observe how this term is used expressively in the following Qur’anic verse:
Surah 9:51: “Nothing shall ever happen to us except what Allah has ordained for us.” (Hilali-Khan)
That is why Muslims so very often use the expression “Insha Allah” which means “If Allah wills.”
THE MYTH OF FREE WILL IN ISLAM
Islam teaches that Allah has decreed all things. Every good or evil deed are said to be predetermined by Allah. We will now provide evidences from the Qur’an and the Hadith to prove why the claim of free will by Muslims is a deception. The Qur’an clearly teaches that not a single event can come to pass without the prior recording of it in the “Clear Book” of Allah:
Surah 6:59: He alone has the keys of the unseen treasures, of which no one knows except Him. He knows whatever is in the land and in the sea; there is not a single leaf that falls without His knowledge, there is neither a grain in the darkness of the earth nor anything fresh or dry which has not been recorded in a Clear Book. (Farook Malik)
Surah 57:22: “Every misfortune that befalls the earth, or on your own person, is ordained before We bring it into being. That is easy for Allah.” (Dawood)
Surah 3:145: “And no human being can die save by God’s leave, at a term pre-ordained.” (Asad)
Any claim of free will in Islam is illusory. It is a deception concocted by some Muslim scholars to cover the damaging effects of predestination in Islam. As the above Qur’anic verses clearly prove, the claim that free will exists in Islam is completely false. In Islamic theology, the absolute power of Allah dominates over everything and everyone. The will of Allah prevails over the free will of humans. The human free will acts only as an instrument of the will of Allah. Therefore, the human free will does not have an independent reality of its own. Every good and evil deed of humans are ultimately the result of the will of Allah. Since the entire life course of an individual is decided upon by Allah, there can be no such thing as free will in Islam. Allah does not dignify humans with the gift of free will.
The claim by Muslims that free will exists in Islam is refuted by none other than Allah himself. Consider carefully the clear teachings of Allah in the following Qur’anic verses:
Surah 54:49: Indeed, all things We created with predestination. (Sahih International)
The above Qur’anic verse needs no explanation. Can there really be free will when we are pre-programmed to do what Allah has already predestined us to do at our creation? This means Allah has already sealed the fate of every single individual and nothing can be done to change that. Let us now consider another Surah to see if free will really exists in Islam:
Surah 76:29-31: All this is an admonition and reminder, and so let him who wills, take a path to his Lord. You cannot will unless Allah wills. Surely God is All-Knowing, All-Wise. He admits whom He wills into His mercy. (Ali Unal)
If at all there is such a thing as free will in Islam, it is an illusion. It is a pretense. Please read the above Surah carefully once again. It says: “You cannot will unless Allah wills.” How can there be free will when you do not have the free will to exercise your free will. The overpowering will of Allah not only supplants and but also decimates the free will of humans. Therefore, man is under compulsion to do what Allah decrees. Consider now another damaging verse in the Qur’an:
Surah 10:100: No soul can believe, except by the will of Allah, and He will place doubt on those who will not understand. (Yusuf Ali)
We do not even have the free will to believe in Allah. We cannot believe unless it is the will of Allah for us do so. This Qur’anic verse is simply saying that everyone would have believed in Allah if it was the will of Allah. Instead Allah chooses to “place doubt on those who do not understand.” Thus, our code of conduct has nothing to do with the outcome of our salvation. Our eternal destiny is determined solely by the will of Allah.
While it is unthinkable to accept a person’s claim that God made him or her commit an evil act, in Islam it is a reality. The following Qur’anic verse reveals how even the personal decisions of Muslims are subjected to the overriding power of the predetermined will of Allah:
Surah 3:154: Then after grief He sent down security on you, slumber overcoming a party of you, while there was another party whom their own souls had rendered anxious. They entertained about Allah thoughts of ignorance quite unjustly. They said: Have we any hand in the affair? Say: The affair is wholly in the hands of Allah. They hide within their souls that which they would not reveal to thee. They say: Had we any hand in the affair, we would not have been slain here. Say: Had you remained in your houses, those for whom slaughter was ordained would have gone forth to the places where they would be slain. (Maulana)
The above Qur’anic verse was revealed in connection with the Battle of Uhud where a significant number of Muslims were killed by their enemies. Some of the survivors were not happy with the outcome. They complained at the unnecessary loss of lives. Having understood the background of Surah 3:154, let us now analyze this Qur’anic verse carefully.
Surah 3:154 clearly teaches that Allah ordains everything. He even predetermines the “slaughter” of the Muslims. Thus, Muhammad’s decision to engage in the battle at Uhud has nothing to do with the premature death of his followers. The Muslims would have died anyway because their deaths were ordained by Allah. No action on the part of a mere human can change that outcome. Read carefully the words of Allah in Surah 3:154 once again. It clearly states that even if the Muslims were to decide to remain in their homes, all those who are ordained to be killed on that day would have gone to the battlefield to die. Does this sound like free will to you? Let’s look at another translation of this same Qur’anic verse to ensure that we did not misunderstand Allah.
Surah 3:154: They conceal in their hearts what they would not reveal to you. They say: “Had we had any say in the matter, none of us would have been killed here.” Say to them: “Had you stayed in your homes, those whose death had been decreed would nevertheless have gone forth to the places where they were destined to die.” (W. Khan)
In Islam, it does not really matter how cautiously or how recklessly we live our lives, the predestination of Allah seals our fate. Nothing can be more depressing than having no liberty to act on our own. Belief in predestination is one of the articles of faith in Islam. The importance of predestination is evident in the following Qur’anic verse. Two different translations are provided below:
Surah 97:1: Lo! We revealed it on the Night of Predestination. (Pickthall)
We revealed the Quran on the Night of Destiny. (Sarwar)
The fact that Allah chooses to reveal the Qur’an on the “Night of Predestination” shows how deeply this teaching is entrenched in Islam.
ALLAH PREDESTINES THE FATE OF EVERY HUMAN BEING
Provided below are some of the most damaging verses in the Qur’an. Observe carefully how the teaching of predestination is deeply rooted in these Qur’anic verses:
Surah 5:41: And the one whom Allah wills to send astray, you will never be able to help him in the least against Allah; they are those whose hearts Allah did not will to cleanse; for them is disgrace in this world, and for them is a great punishment in the Hereafter. (Faridul Haque)
Another translation of the same Qur’anic verse reads as follows:
Do not be saddened by them, for if Allah wills someone to be tempted by evil, you will not be able to do anything for them. These are the ones whose hearts Allah is not willing to cleanse. They will be disgraced in this world, and will have terrible suffering in the Hereafter. (Safi Kaskas)
And more blasphemous verses in the Book of Allah:
Surah 14:4: “…Then Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Wise.” (Pickthall)
Surah 16:93: “Had Allah willed He could have made you all one nation, but He sendeth whom He will astray and guideth whom He will, and ye will indeed be asked of what ye used to do.” (Pickthall)
The Qur’an teaches that Allah is omnipotent or all-powerful. As such, it will be absolutely impossible for mere humans–with their limited power–to guide those whom Allah misleads. In fact, the Qur’an makes it clear that not even Muhammad can save those whom Allah leads astray. Allah asks Muhammad a provocative question:
Surah 4:88: “Would you guide whom Allah has caused to err? And whom Allah has led astray cannot be guided.” (Dawood)
Allah decides the final destination of every individual in the hereafter. No individual has the free will to determine his or her own destination. According to the teachings of Islam, those who are predestined to Hell-Fire will act accordingly in this world to earn such a punishment. And those who are predestined to Paradise will act accordingly in this world to earn such a reward. Therefore, nothing can be done by the individual to alter his or her fate. The deeds and destinies of every individual are decided long before they are even born into the world. What the Qur’an teaches in black and white, the Hadith teaches in color. The following Hadith demonstrates how the Islamic deity has sealed the fate of Muslims while they were still in their mother’s womb.
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 77, Number 593:
Narrated ‘Abdullah bin Mus’ud: Allah’s Apostle, the truthful and truly-inspired, said, “Each one of you collected in the womb of his mother for forty days, and then turns into a clot for an equal period of forty days and turns into a piece of flesh for a similar period of forty days and then Allah sends an angel and orders him to write four things, i.e., his provision, his age, and whether he will be of the wretched or the blessed in the Hereafter. Then the soul is breathed into him. And by Allah, a person among you (or a man) may do deeds of the people of the Fire till there is only a cubit or an arm-breadth distance between him and the Fire, but then that writing which Allah has ordered the angel to write precedes, and he does the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters it; and a man may do the deeds of the people of Paradise till there is only a cubit or two between him and Paradise, and then that writing precedes and he does the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it.”
Let us analyze the above teaching of predestination in Islam. According to Muhammad, a Muslim can be sinning for most of his life, but since he is predestined by Allah to live in Paradise in the hereafter, he will turn around to doing good in the final moments of his life to merit that reward. And a Muslim can be doing good for most of his life, but since he is predestined to Hell in the hereafter by Allah, he will turn around to doing evil in the final moments of his life to merit that punishment. The important thing to take note is that neither one of these two groups of persons is turning around on the basis of their own free will but by predestination. This is a clear case of favoritism by Allah. He arbitrarily favors some over the others.
Just think, if your final place of “eternal damnation” is already determined for you before you are even born, can you then alter your destiny by attempting to live a virtuous life after you are born? In fact, you cannot even choose to live a virtuous life unless you are predestined by Allah to do so. Such is the despair in Islam. You are damned if you are damned by Allah. Predestination is a curse that Muslims are unaware of. To predestine people to do good or bad and then to reward or punish them for the actions they have no control over is truly unjust. The following Hadith reveals how the concept of predestination nullifies the teachings of the Prophets:
Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Number 6406:
Abu al-Aswad reported that ‘Imran b Husain asked him: What is your view, what the people do today in the world, and strive for, is it something decreed for them or preordained for them or will their fate in the Hereafter be determined by the fact that their Prophets brought them teaching which they did not act upon? I said: Of course, it is something which is predetermined for them and preordained for them. He said: Then, would it not be an injustice to punish them?
I felt greatly disturbed because of that, and said: Everything is created by Allah and lies in His Power. He would not be questioned as to what He does, but they would be questioned; thereupon he said to me: May Allah have mercy upon you, I did not mean to ask you but for testing your intelligence. Two men of the tribe of Muzaina came to Allah’s Messenger and said: Allah’s Messenger, what is your opinion that the people do in the world and strive for, is something decreed for them; something preordained for them and will their fate in the Hereafter be determined by the fact that their Prophets brought them teachings which they did not act upon. And thus they became deserving of punishment?
Thereupon, Allah’s Messenger said: Of course, it happens as it is decreed by Destiny and preordained for them, and this view is confirmed by this verse of the Book of Allah, the Exalted and Glorious: “Consider the soul and Him Who made it perfect, then breathed into it its sin and its piety” (Surah 91:7-8).
Two translations of Surah 91:7-8 are provided below:
“By the soul and Who shaped it and inspired it with its sin and its piety.” (Qaribullah)
“By a Soul and Him who balanced it, And breathed into it its wickedness and its piety.” (JM Rodwell)
The above Hadith reveals that predestination supersedes everything. And it renders the teachings and the guidance of the Prophets worthless. Of course, this would include the teachings of the Prophet of Islam which are based on the Qur’an. This means that Muhammad and the Qur’an, in reality, are useless for the salvation of Muslims. Muhammad cited Surah 91:7-8 as authority to confirm this truth in Islam. He stated: “Of course, it happens as it is decreed by Destiny and preordained for them, and this view is confirmed by this verse of the Book of Allah.”
The Qur’anic verses cited in the Hadith tell us that Allah inspires wickedness or sin into the soul of a person. Does not this then prove that right from the beginning of mankind’s creation, all the wicked deeds performed by every individual are actually inspired by Allah? Does not this prove that Allah is the author of evil? Surah 91:7-8 is so damaging that some translators of the Qur’an deliberately try to obscure the true meaning of these verses. They add words such as “knowledge” or “conscious” in parenthesis to imply that Allah breathed into the soul the “knowledge” or “conscious” of sin and piety. The original Arabic does not allow for such insertion. The above Hadith by Sahih Muslim where Surah 91:7-8 is translated word for word from the original Arabic simply says:
“Consider the soul and Him Who made it perfect, then breathed into it its sin and its piety.”
Let us consider a few more Hadiths. The following Hadiths not only substantiate the teachings of Allah in Surah 91:7-8 but also the damaging consequences of predestination in Islam.
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 77, Number 609:
Narrated Ibn ‘Abbas: I did not see anything so resembling minor sins as what Abu Huraira said from the Prophet, who said, “Allah has written for the son of Adam his inevitable share of adultery whether he is aware of it or not.”
Sahih Muslim, Book 033, Number 6421:
Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Apostle as saying: Verily Allah has fixed the very portion of adultery which a man will indulge in, and which he of necessity must commit.
Sahih Muslim, Book 033, Number 6422:
Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger as saying: Allah fixed the very portion of adultery which a man will indulge in. There would be no escape from it.
Can you comprehend the absolute evil nature of this Islamic teaching? Will a loving God willfully submit his very own creations to commit such evil sins as adultery which they “of necessity must commit.” Will it then be justifiable for God to punish them for the sins that he himself destined them to commit? Would not such a God be both sadistic and evil in nature? Therefore, Allah cannot be the true God. He is but an impostor. Ironically, Allah has provided unfaithful husbands with a valid excuse to commit adultery. Thanks to Allah, they can now tell their wives: “Allah made me do it.” In complete contrast, the Holy Bible teaches us that it is beyond the holiness of the true God to even test humans–let alone subjecting them–by employing evil.
James 1:13: Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God.” For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither does He tempt anyone with evil things.
This fact alone should move Muslims to turn to Jehovah, the only true God. Well-known Islamic scholar, Risaleh-i-Barkhavi, clarifies how the predestination of Allah exerts it control over an individual:
“Not only can He (Allah) 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.”
By the same stated logic: “When a man rapes a woman, it is Allah who has created in his mind the will to rape. Allah at the same time gives the power to rape, then he brings about the motion to carry out the rape. All other things are passive, Allah alone is active. He actually is the only One who does anything.” In other words, Allah is the Rapist. Yet, the poor man who mindlessly carries out the will of Allah is criminalized. It is like giving a speeding ticket to the vehicle instead of the reckless driver. Our intention is not to insult Muslims but to show them the absurdity of their religion.
By teaching predestination, the Qur’an has made it clear that an individual’s final destination is not determined by his or her response, either favorably or unfavorably, to the teachings of the Prophets or the Scriptures but “as it is decreed by destiny and preordained for that individual.” This means that in reality, there is no need for either Scriptures or Prophets. And it also means that Muslims have no power whatsoever to choose the outcome of their own destiny. This is the tragic consequence of predestination in Islam. Contrast this with the divine teachings of the true God. Christians are given the right to work out their own salvation. They can choose salvation over damnation by the use of their free will to make their own personal decision to walk faithfully with God:
Philippians 2:12: Keep working out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
THE PREDESTINATION OF ADAM
According to the teachings of Islam, forty years before Adam was created, Allah predestined him to sin against God by eating the forbidden fruit.
Malik’s Muwatta, Book 46, Number 46.1.1:
Yahya related to me from Malik from Abu’z-Zinad from al-Araj from Abu Hurayra that the Messenger of Allah said, “Adam and Musa (Moses) argued and Adam got the better of Musa. …Adam said, ‘Do you then censure me for a matter which was decreed for me before I was created?’”
Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 77, Number 611:
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “Adam and Moses argued with each other. Moses said to Adam. ‘O Adam! You are our father who disappointed us and turned us out of Paradise.’ Then Adam said to him, ‘O Moses! Allah favored you with His talk (talked to you directly) and He wrote (the Torah) for you with His Own Hand. Do you blame me for action which Allah had written in my fate forty years before my creation?’ So Adam confuted Moses, Adam confuted Moses,” the Prophet added, repeating the Statement three times.
Adam confuted Moses by saying: “Do you blame me for the action which Allah had written in my fate forty years before my creation?” It is important to note Muhammad’s own remarks in this Hadith. He stated: “Adam got the better of Musa” and “Adam confuted Moses” In other words, Muhammad agrees with Adam that Moses was wrong for blaming Adam for the transgression he was predestined to commit. If Adam is not to be blamed, who then is responsible for his rebellion against God? Are Muslims willing to accept that Allah is responsible? Additionally, if Adam is not to be blamed, then neither should any humans be accountable for their sins since they, like Adam, are doing exactly what they are predestined to do. If Adam is excused, then all others too must be exempted from punishment. Yet, this confusion in Islam does not stop here. If Adam is not to be blamed for the sins he was predestined to commit, why was he then cast out of Paradise?
Surah 7:24: He said, “Go down as enemies of one another. On earth shall be your habitation and provision for awhile.” (Khalifa)
The absurdity of the teaching of predestination even confused Muhammad. Does it make sense to punish someone who is innocent? Therefore, by agreeing that Adam was innocent, Muhammad did not realize that he was actually faulting the legality of Allah’s punishment. In the Qur’an, Allah not only blames the individuals for the sins they are predestined to commit but he also punishes them for it. Such unjustifiable teachings are common in Islam:
Surah 5:41: And the one whom Allah wills to send astray, you will never be able to help him in the least against Allah; they are those whose hearts Allah did not will to cleanse; for them is disgrace in this world, and for them is a great punishment in the Hereafter. (Faridul Haque)
Not only Muhammad but even Allah is confused with his teaching of predestination. Let us now look at an instant contradiction regarding predestination in the Qur’an:
Surah 4:78: Wherever you may be, death will overtake you, even if you should be within towers of lofty construction. But if good comes to them, they say, “This is from Allah” and if evil befalls them, they say, “This is from you.” Say, “All things are from Allah.” So what is the matter with those people that they can hardly understand any statement? (Sahih International)
According to the above Qur’anic verse, some people in Muhammad’s time believed that when good things happened, it is from Allah but when evil things befell them, they blamed Muhammad for the evil. However, Allah commands Muhammad to tell them, “All is from Allah.” In other words, both good and evil come from Allah. Yet, in the very next verse, Allah contradicts himself:
Surah 4:79: What comes to you of good is from Allah, but what comes to you of evil (O man) is from yourself. And We have sent you, (O Muhammad), to the people as a messenger, and sufficient is Allah as Witness. (Sahih International)
This proves that either Muhammad is faking inspiration or Allah is suffering from schizophrenia. Islam teaches that Adam was predestined some forty years before he was created. Well, what does Islam say about all those who came into this world through procreation? When does their predestination by Allah take place? The following Hadith provides the answer.
Sahih Muslim, Book 033, Number 6436:
A’isha, the mother of the believers, said that Allah’s Messenger was called to lead the funeral prayer of a child of the Ansar. I said: Allah’s Messenger, there is happiness for this child who is a bird from the birds of Paradise for it committed no sin nor has he reached the age when one can commit sin. He said: ‘A’isha, per adventure, it may be otherwise, because God created for Paradise those who are fit for it while they were yet in their father’s loins and created for Hell those who are to go to Hell. He created them for Hell while they were yet in their father’s loins.
The expression, “while they were yet in their father’s loins” actually refers to the time before the conception of the child even takes place. It refers to a time before the child is even conceived by its mother. Thus, those who are predestined to Hell are subjected to it before they are even formed in their mother’s womb.
Completely eliminating any hope for the child, Muhammad taught that the child who is predestined to Hell is actually “created for Hell.” Additionally, the impossibility to work out one’s own salvation in Islam means those who are destined to Hell are doomed right from the start to the end. And they can do nothing about it. Muslims have no clue where Allah has predestined each one of them to spend their eternity–in Paradise or Hell. Is it justifiable for an individual to be predestined to Hell before he or she is even conceived? How can a judgement of condemnation be passed on to a person before that individual even commits a single sin? In fact, even some early Muslims were troubled by this injustice of Allah.
Sahih Muslim, Book 33, Number 6393:
‘Abdullah b. Mas’ud reported: Evil one is he who is evil in the womb of his mother and the good one is he who takes lesson from the (fate of) others. The narrator came to a person from amongst the Companion of Allah’s Messenger who was called Hudhaifa b. Usaid Ghifari and said: How can a person be an evil one without committing an evil deed? Thereupon the person said to him: You are surprised at this, whereas I have heard Allah’s Messenger as saving: When forty nights pass after the semen gets into the womb, Allah sends the angel and gives him the shape. Then he creates his sense of hearing, sense of sight, his skin, his flesh, his bones, and then says: My Lord, would he be male or female? And your Lord decides as He desires and the angel then puts down that also and then says: My Lord, what about his age? And your Lord decides as He likes it and the angel puts it down. Then he says: My Lord, what about his livelihood? And then the Lord decides as He likes and the angel writes it down, and then the angel gets out with his scroll of destiny in his hand and nothing is added to it and nothing is subtracted from it.
Can you really believe this? The eternal salvation of mankind is arbitrarily decided according to the whims and fancies of Allah. The doctrine of predestination is of fundamental importance in the theology of Islam. The significance of predestination in Islam is highlighted in the historical works of the great Muslim scholar, Al-Tabari:
Tabari I:202: “There are people who consider predestination untrue. Then they consider the Qur’an untrue… People merely carry out what is a foregone conclusion, decided by predestination and written down by the Pen.”
Al-Tabari declared clearly that for a Muslim to deny the teaching of predestination is to deny the Qur’an. What is “written down by the Pen” of Allah manipulates the activities of every single Muslim. It has mastery over the deeds they carry out and the sins they commit. It controls the time of their death and even their final destination in the hereafter. You can almost sense the feeling of hopelessness in the words of this Muslim scholar: “People merely carry out what is a foregone conclusion.”
Most Muslims do not invest enough time to study the true teachings of Islam from authentic sources of Islam. Instead, they watch Islamic TV channels, read propaganda materials, and believe all the lies that they are fed by their Muslim religious leaders. They then propagate the same lies that they learn from these sources. It is actually a shame that Muslim leaders have to lie so much and deny so much of their Scriptures just to keep the Muslims satisfied. And they have to repeat these same lies, time and again, to gain converts and to justify the unjustifiable teachings of Allah.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ALLAH AND JEHOVAH
Sincere Muslims who value their eternal salvation should seriously consider the damaging implications of Allah’s proclamation in the following Qur’anic verse. For the benefit of Muslims–many who do not even know their own Scriptures–we have provided two different translations of this Qur’anic verse:
Surah 32:13: Had we willed, we could have given every soul its guidance, but it is already predetermined that I will fill Hell with jinns and humans, all together. (Rashad)
Had We wanted, We could have given guidance to every soul, but My decree, that hell will be filled-up with jinn and people, has already been executed. (Sarwar)
Without a doubt the above Qur’anic verse confirms that Allah is a sadistic deity with a spiteful spirit. Allah deliberately holds back guidance for the sole pleasure of filling Hell with humans (and Jinns). How can Muslims submit to a deity that deliberately holds back guidance for the sole purpose of fulfilling his predestined quota of the number of persons he wants to send there? This is grossly immoral. We must remember that in line with the teachings of Hell-fire in Islam, this would then mean a destination of unspeakable suffering for billions in a fiery place of torment in the hereafter.
Can Allah then really be the true God? This can only mean that the spirit that speaks until today in the Qur’an is neither divine nor godly but rather an ungodly, demonic power that holds more than a billion Muslims captive. Is it any wonder then that Allah has no misgivings about predestining billions to a fiery destination? Now see the contrast between the spiteful spirit of Allah and the compassion of Jehovah:
2 Peter 3:9: Jehovah is not slow concerning his promise, as some people consider slowness, but he is patient with you because he does not desire anyone to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.
The above Biblical verse states that Jehovah “does not desire anyone to be destroyed but desires all to attain to repentance.” Notice carefully what this actually means. This means it is really up to us to decide whether we want to be saved or not. And Jehovah loving implores us to make the right decision by turning to him in repentance. It is his loving desire that we do so. What a loving God! We are invested with the power to choose our own destiny. There is an option for us. We have the free will to change our destination. An open door to everlasting salvation is available for all those who sincerely repent and leave their sinful course. Yes, we have the free will to avoid an unfavorable judgement. We are the masters of our destiny. These are the loving hallmarks of a truly loving Creator. This loving attitude of Jehovah is also revealed in the following verses:
Ezekiel 18:21-23: “Now if someone wicked turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps my statutes and does what is just and righteous, he will surely keep living. He will not die. None of the transgressions that he has committed will be held against him. He will keep living for doing what is righteous.” “Do I take any pleasure at all in the death of a wicked person?” declares the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. “Do I not prefer that he turn away from his ways and keep living?”
Mercy is extended to a sinner who repents and leaves his sinful course. In fact, Jehovah God entreats the sinner to use his free will to change his sinful course. Muslims should seriously reflect on the contrast between the attributes of Jehovah and the attributes of Allah. Muslims should make a decision based on these vital differences between Allah and Jehovah. While Surah 3:145 teaches that Allah has fixed the time of death of his worshipers, Jehovah the God of tender mercies appeals to his worshipers:
Ecclesiastes 7:17: “Why should you die when it is not your time?”
Jehovah God is lovingly entreating the sinner: “Why should you die prematurely on account of the consequences of living a sinful life-style?”
THE INJUSTICE OF PREDESTINATION
The difference regarding predestination and free will is one of the main points of divergence between Christianity and Islam. Jehovah, who is a God of Justice does not and will not predetermine our course of action against our will. He has, but lovingly placed in our hands the freedom to choose. For the true God who created the human race created them as free moral agents. By granting us this freedom to choose, Jehovah has both dignified us and at the same time allowed true justice to prevail. This glorious freedom is what differentiates us from animals. Animals perform by instinct but we by choice. Because we have a choice, we are also subjected to divine laws. Otherwise, the blessings and punishments for either adhering or not adhering to the divine laws of God make no sense when it is beyond our control to act on our own. Only when we are blessed with free will, the deeds that we perform can have real moral significance.
However, there is yet another vital reason why we are created as free moral agents with the right to exercise our free will. Our loving Creator wants us to love him out of our own free will and not because we are programmed or predestined to do so. Only in this way, we can truly say that the love that we express for Him is our own. If there is no free will, love can never play a part in our worship of God. And Jehovah has given us the freedom to choose our destiny:
Deuteronomy 30:19: “I have put life and death before you, the blessing and the curse. You must choose life so that you may live.”
The above statement of Jehovah needs no explanation. It simply means we have a choice. We can choose our destination. We can choose life.
