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- Title
Khalīfah Abdul Ḥakim on the Doctrine of Free Will and Predestination, Good and Evil in Islam.
- Authors
Saleem, Hafiz Muhammad; Hasan Rizvi, Khurshid ul
- Abstract
Doctrine of free will and predestination has always been an important theological issue throughout the Islamic history. Like other theologians of every Islamic era, contemporary muslim theologians have tried their best to provide rational arguments for this issue. Dr. Khalīfah Abdul Ḥakim, (1896- 1959) was a prominent Islamic theologian, intellectual and philosopher whose main interest was in promotion of the universal values of Islam in the contemporary context. This article is aimed to address this question that what arguments he has provided for the Islamic doctrine of good and evil. Khalīfah says that man is blessed with liberty and free will. If he were merely a part of nature which is controlled by fixed laws, he would not be different from trees, heavenly bodies and matter. Furthermore, God is free and He made man also free by breathing His own spirit into him. He is not controlled and determined by fixed laws. But, freedom, having double- edged is a dangerous weapon. Man can revolt even against his Creator. However, he is not created with perverted instincts. The theory of original sin is absolutely incompatible with the teachings of Islam. God has granted free will to man which is definitely an act of a loving fosterer. If a man commits any evil as a result of endowed free will, cannot be attributed to the lack of goodness in God. So far as the theory of existence of evil in nature is concerned, Khalīfah has categorically repudiated it as there is no deficiency in nature. It is only our wishes that attributed and connected virtue or vice to the occurrences and incidents of nature. There is no natural vice but there certainly exists moral vice as a result of endowed free will to man. However, there are two kinds of moral evil. First, the evil caused by man’s own acts. Second, the evil caused by the acts of others. The sufferings caused by man’s own acts are actually the result of his endowed free will. The sufferings caused by the acts of others are the source of man’s purification.
- Subjects
PREDESTINATION (Islam); FREE will &; determinism (Islam); MUSLIM theologians; GOOD &; evil; ISLAM; ORIGINAL sin
- Publication
Al-Adwa / Al-Az̤vā, 2020, Vol 35, Issue 54, p33
- ISSN
1995-7904
- Publication type
Article