Title: Criticisms of Free-will... Question/Comments: I have read your replies to the issue of free-will and predestination. I have the following questions/comments: The idea of free-will contradicts the scientific principle of cause and effect. If I do an action, I do so because of some cause. If actions had no cause, then they would be arbitrary, impulsive and make no sense. If free-will does exist, then would this not lead to a multiplicity of wills? Or can we say that it is the Will of God, that man has 'free-will'? Free-will cannot exist and is intuitively contradictory: if everyone has free-will then we all limit each other, so we have lost the notion of free-will. Jazakallah Khayr salaam `alaykum Razwan UK Answer: It should be kept in mind that Islam does not propound that man has absolute freedom of will. On the contrary, Islam holds that even though man does not enjoy any freedom of will in many spheres of his life, yet he generally enjoys complete freedom of will in the moral decision-making aspects of his life and it is, in fact, only this sphere of man's life about which he shall be held accountable in the hereafter. Thus, for instance, man does not have a choice in selecting the time, place and circumstances of his birth, he does not control the external situational variables and contingent factors that may, directly or indirectly, affect his behavior, yet he enjoys significant - if not complete - control over his own behavior, whether this behavior is reactive or proactive. Keeping the foregoing explanation in perspective, let us now take a look at your specific questions: It is true that the idea of free will contradicts the scientific principle of cause and effect. However, it is not a scientific fact that man's behavior is mechanical enough to be brought under the scope of the scientific principle of cause and effect. In fact, we know, through introspection that even though our choice of preferred behavior may sometimes be affected by a number of external causes, yet they are not always bound by them; One may consider that if man's moral decisions cannot be ascribed to specific causes, it would then render human behavior arbitrary and impulsive, yet we know through introspection that human behavior is indeed impulsive and sometimes arbitrary; Yes, it is the will of the Creator to provide man with Free-Will in a specific sphere of his life; I agree with the point that ascribing to the idea of unrestricted and unlimited free-will for all individuals in an interdependent world is a contradictory concept, yet, in my opinion, this contradiction is removed by limiting the nature and scope of this free will, as has been explained earlier. I hope this helps. Regards, Moiz Amjad October 11, 2002