Different views on human freedom – Mu’tazilites and Asharites
All Muslims believe that God has given human beings free willThe idea that humans are free to make their own moral choices., but different Muslims have different beliefs about the limits of free will.
Mu’tazilites
The Mu’tazilites were a group that was most active in the 8th and 10th centuries AD. Their ideas have lasted and have had a particular impact on Shi'aMuslims, or Shi’ites, who believe in the Imamah, leadership of Ali and his descendants after the Prophet Muhammad. theology. The Mu’tazilites argued that:
- Humans must have total free will as God, who is perfectly wise and good, cannot cause evil, yet evil exists.
- God allows human suffering in order to test people’s faith, which is evidence of complete freedom of action.
- Moral actions are either good or evil, and humans should use their reason to work out which is which.
- God must stand by his promise to reward the righteous with Paradise and punish the wicked with Hell.
- The reward or punishment that God gives out can only be just if it is given to creatures who truly have free will.
Although the Qurʾan (Koran)The Recitation or Reading. Allah’s eternal utterance revealed to the Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Jibril as his final revelation to humankind. teaches that God guides and leads astray whoever he wants to (Surah 14:4), for Mu’tazilite Muslims this does not mean that people are subject to predestinationThe idea that Allah already knows one's destiny and it is already written. . Rather, Mu’tazilites believe that such passages in the Qur’an refer to what will happen after death, at judgement, when the righteous will be guided to Paradise and the wicked will be caused to stray far from it.
Asharites
Asharism is the main theological school of SunniMuslims who believe in the successorship of Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali as leaders of the Muslim community after the Prophet Muhammad. Islam. It was founded by the theologian Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari early in the 10th century when he broke away from the Mu’tazilite thinkers who had been his teachers and companions. Followers of these teachings are known as Asharites. Asharites reject the Mu’tazilites’ views about free will. Instead, they argue:
- Humans have some freedom of action and total freedom of thought, but only God has the power to create actions – humans do not have this power.
- Humans cannot truly understand ideas about freedom and justice, which are the domain of God alone.
- God may send a person to Hell or Heaven even though it seems unfair to human beings. Ultimately, everything God does is fair, but much of it is beyond human understanding.
- God may forgive the sins of the people in Hell.
