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Surah 35:8 states, "Allah leaves to stray whom He wills, and guides whom He wills."

How can a merciful God (ar-Rahim) do this? How does this fit with Islamic sotierology?

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Allah answers the question of whom and why he leads astray in plenty of places of the Quran.

Allah says:

He misguides many thereby and guides many thereby. And He misguides not except the defiantly disobedient, (2:26)

Rather, Allah has sealed them because of their disbelief, so they believe not, except for a few. (4:155)

Allah has sent him astray due to knowledge (45:23)

The verses of qadr (predestination) in the Quran should not be misconstrued to contradict free will. In Islam, we believe in qadr and free will simultaneously (compatibilism), and we do not believe either contradicts the other.

Everything occurs due to Allah's will, but human actions are special in that—despite occurring due to Allah's will—they are also willed by humans and the moral responsibility is for the human who did them.

This is difficult to understand for us because we think the one who wills an action as morally responsible all the time and we cannot imagine the possibility of two wills. However, the difficulty of imagining it is no reason to reject it.

We believe in what Allah has revealed in the Quran and Sunnah, and He has said humans will their actions and so does He will their actions to occur. And the human is morally culpable.

This duality is explicitly mentioned in the Quran when Allah says:

Indeed, this is a reminder, so he who wills may take to his Lord a way.

And you do not will except that Allah wills. Indeed, Allah is ever Knowing and Wise. (76:29-30)

And Allah knows best.

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  • Everything occurs due to Allah's will, but human actions are special in that—despite occurring due to Allah's will—they are also willed by humans and the moral responsibility is for the human who did them. OK. if Allah's will is prior to His creations' wills, then this distinction collapses, because Allah is omnipotent. Therefore, the question of moral agency (on the part of Allah's creation) is moot.
    – Lucky
    Commented Sep 16, 2022 at 0:35
  • The verses of qadr (predestination) in the Quran should not be misconstrued to contradict free will. In Islam, we believe in qadr and free will simultaneously (compatibilism) This seems like a sufficiently thorny problem that there can't possibly be unanimity of all Islamic scholars on this point. Just a guess.
    – Lucky
    Commented Sep 16, 2022 at 0:44
  • @Lucky This is the orthodox position of all of Sunni Islam because of the clear evidence of both qadr and free will in the Islamic texts (and they are usually intentionally juxtaposed by Allah just to make sure no one thinks it was an unintentional mistake). There were in the past heretical groups that denied free will (Jabriyyah) and other heretical groups that denied qadr (Qadriyyah).
    – The Z
    Commented Sep 16, 2022 at 1:03
  • Qadr and free will was a whole matter of heresy in the early centuries of Islam, and it sprang up even in the time of the Sahabah. See Ibn Umar (RA)'s commnets on Qadriyyah: sunnah.com/muslim:8a
    – The Z
    Commented Sep 16, 2022 at 1:05
  • I totally accept that there is and can be an orthodox position on this. I just want to understand the precise argumentation for the orthodox position.
    – Lucky
    Commented Sep 16, 2022 at 2:48
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I think It's like a otome game, the creator of the otome game give you free choice but no matter which path you choose, creator know your final destination for evey signal choice.

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  • I don't know what this otome thing is. Can you explain in generic western terms?
    – Lucky
    Commented Sep 16, 2022 at 2:54
  • It's just my idea,so it may not be accepted,but I think,Allah has given you many choice,it’s for you to choose as which path you will take from this choices but whatever path you choose Allah already know what this choice will led you to,I mean your destination and to make you save from a bad ending he will again and again give you choice in life but after you make too many bad choice Allah will not save you any more cause It's your choice to turn away from Allah and you are responsible for your bad ending.It's only when you cross the limit Allah will led you astray as this was your choice.
    – Enana
    Commented Sep 16, 2022 at 8:57

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