Message for Muslims

Allah’s decrees and Man’s responsibility

The question of man’s responsibility for his acts was raised in the early days of Islam, in the period when Muslims were first challenged by Christian thought in Damascus. The explanation which orthodox opinion offers is related to a dogma which is fundamental to Muslim orthodox theology and is expressed in the following way. If man is the creator, or the generator, of his acts, then there are many creators in the Universe. This cannot be, for there is only one Creator, and that is Allah. The activities of the wicked and of the saint, of the generous and the grasping, are all Allah’s creation. Certain unorthodox Muslims, known as the Mutazila, in objecting to the orthodox position, declared that, if Allah creates evil, then He Himself is vile. The orthodox replied that it is false to assume that, because Allah is the creator of evil He is thereby tainted by the imperfections which proceed from Him. This doctrine of Allah’s sole creativeness became the doctrine of orthodoxy, and it is of particular interest to the Christian, both from the point of view of the protesting voices raised within Islam itself, and also because it cannot be divorced (in Muslim thought) from the conception of Allah’s sovereignty and His decree.

Muslims are thus uneasy about the doctrine of Allah’s decree, possibly because it has been objected to by Christians. Some Muslim authors ignore or reinterpret the doctrine of Allah’s decree and His creation of man’s acts. Others make shift with a truncated and imperfect theology or with no systematic theology at all (as in the case of the modern Ahmadiya) because they are not interested in theology, but wish to bring about a political and social strengthening of Islam. Practical considerations have taught them that they cannot hope to do this by setting forth a complete system of theology, and so, although many things have been retained the doctrine of Allah‘s decree, with its corollary of His creation of human acts, has been abandoned. Thoughtful Muslims of a more orthodox type are, however, still very ready to echo the cliches of the old orthodox theology and to declare that man’s acts are ikhtiyari (chosen, adopted). Nevertheless they are very unwilling to discuss the relation between man’s choice (ikhtiyar) and Allah’s decree.

Allah’s decrees and the Muslim doctrine of sin

What bearing does this orthodox dogma of Allah’s decree have on the Muslim doctrine of sin? We find that Islam is interested primarily in the mere classification and cataloguing of human acts. We also find that human sin is not, as in the Bible, examined and interpreted in the light of God’s unvarying righteousness, but that in Islamic thought men’s acts are given whatever value the divine will may impute to them. An illuminating illustration of this latter feature may be found in the account (Surah 33) of the Prophet Muhammad’s marriage to the wife of his adopted son. Here we find that Allah’s will overrides Muhammad’s reluctance to be a party to such a marriage. The Arabs of his time regarded such a connection as incestuous – in this they would be supported by both Christian and Jewish opinion – and the prophet Muhammad was therefore reluctant, until Allah sent down the verse to sanction such a marriage. Tabari in his account of this incident (Vol. 1, pp. 1460 ff) tells us that, when the prophet saw his son’s wife, Zainab, and wished to marry her, he exclaimed, ‘Praised be Allah who changeth the hearts of men.’ In “Muhammad the man and his faith” Tor Andrae describes the account given of this incident in Muslim Traditions, and also records that when Ayesha, the prophet Muhammad’s child wife learned that the revelation found in Surah 33 V.37 had been given sanctioning the marriage with Zainab, she said to Muhammad ‘Truly thy Lord makes haste to do thy pleasure.’

Christian preachers throughout the ages have used this story in attacking the character of the prophet Muhammad, but that is to miss the point. The real significance of this event lies, in the fact that the question of the validity of such a marriage, just as every other question, is referred to Allah’s will. Only those acts are sins which Allah decrees should be so regarded, and if Allah decrees that His prophet should marry his adopted son’s wife, then such an act is not sin.

There are, it is true, many sins and transgressions listed in the Quran which a conscience would also condemn. Islam has also followed the practice (found among certain Christian theologians) of classifying sins as being great or small. When attempting to interpret the significance of the Christian position to our Muslim friends, we should not allow such similarity of language to obscure us from the fact that according to Islam, even sin is ‘as Allah wills’ and is His creation. Possibly we can best explain the teaching of the Bible to our Muslim friends by asserting that God is ‘limited’ by His own righteousness and truth. Allah is not limited in any way in the exercise of His power and will. When David sinned with Bathsheba, he cried before God in his repentance ‘I have sinned against the Lord’ (2 Samuel 12:13). Such a confession as David’s would be meaningless within the context of Islam, for Allah’s power and will cannot be resisted. Man’s sins are breaches of rules, but even those breaches are Allah’s creation, and man cannot interfere with Allah’s ordering of the universe. Sin and evil are part of Allah’s created order, if Allah wills, He leads astray; if He wills, He forgives, and if He wills, He punishes:

> “To Allah belongeth all that is in the heavens and on earth. Whether ye show what is in your minds or conceal it, Allah calleth you to account for it. He forgiveth whom He pleaseth, and punisheth whom He pleaseth” (Al-Baqarrah 2:284).

> “Not for thee, (Muhammad), is the decision: whether He turn in mercy to them, or punish them; for they are indeed wrong-doers. To Allah belongeth all that is in the heavens and on earth. He forgiveth whom He pleaseth and punisheth whom He pleaseth; but Allah is oft-forgiving, most merciful” (Al-Imran 3:128,129).

An unconditioned will lies at the centre of His being, and no permanent disposition of mercy, justice, love or truth may limit or condition its operation.

The Quran and Muslim theology regard the association of other deities in the worship of Allah as the unforgivable sin. Yet, once again, this sin of ‘shirk” (as it is called) is related to Allah’s will. If Allah willed, all men would be believers:

> “If it had been thy Lord’s will, they would all have believed, all who are on earth! wilt thou then compel mankind, against their will, to believe!” (Yunus 10:99)

But He leads astray or guides aright as He wills and one cannot think of the sin of the world as grieving the heart of Allah or calling forth His self-sacrifice or self-committal in order to save men. Why should sin grieve Allah, when it is all His creation?