Qadar

[wel_mel_2]

Bismillah:


Assalamo Alikum.

Yes, I agree! A Protestant Bible (which you quoted from) will always differ from a Catholic Bible

And I have full right to quote from whatever Bible available infront of me, because each of the Christian denominations claims that their Bible is <i>“The true Gospel of Jesus”, </i> they too have full right to make such claim since <b>there is no original source available today to verify which one is true and which is false.</b>

By the way, no one besides the Church has been given authority to interpret Scripture.

Of course you are referring to <i>the Catholic Church</i>, but other Churches interpretations are rejected…

Yeah yeah yeah, we're past that initial stage, Wael! Was Satan just fulfilling Allah's plan though?

Somehow you are right; Satan was created for important purposes. If Satan, who continually tries to seduce us, did not exist, our creation would be meaningless and futile. God gave us free will so that we could know good from evil. In addition, He gave us great potentials. Our development of these potentials and our struggle to choose between good and evil make us experience a constant battle in our inner and outer worlds. Just as God sends hawks upon sparrows so that the latter will develop their potential to escape, He created Satan and allowed him to tempt us so that our resistance to temptation will raise us spiritually and strengthen our willpower. Just as hunger stimulates human beings and animals to further exertion and discovery of new ways to be satisfied, and fear inspires new defenses, Satan’s temptations cause us to develop our potentials and guard against sin.


It is truly beautiful when you resist Satan’s temptation and defeat him. May Allah always protect us from such temptations, Ameen.

You managed to understand the Bible but what about the Qur'an/Sunnah?

Alhamdulelah am struggeling to gain better understanding of my Deen, may Allah increase our knowledge, give us wisdom and forgive our sins… Ameen.

I know where you stand on this issue but are other Muslims permitted to shun the idea of complete freewill based on certain Ayats/Hadiths?

As I told you in previous posts, I know <b>NO</b> Muslim who rejects the idea of "complete freewill", almost all Muslims do believe that God has given us free will to choose right from wrong, we are not just some puppets controlled by God. yes He is aware of whatever going to happen in the future but that doesnt mean that he is responsible for our actions... let me give you an example and hopefully insh a Allah you can get better understanding on this subject:


Suppose an experienced teacher, before the final examinations, predicts that a particular student will fail in the exams, since the student is very mischievous, not attentive in class and does not do his homework. If after the student appears for the examination, he fails, who is to be blamed for the student failing: the teacher or the student? Just because the teacher predicted, it does not mean that the teacher is to be blamed but the student himself is responsible for his failure.


Similarly Allah knows in advance that there are some people who are bent on rejecting the faith and follow evil, and so Allah has put a seal on their hearts. Thus these non-Muslims themselves are responsible for rejecting the faith and not Allah.

It appears that a handful of Muslims accept freewill as a core belief, whereas others find the whole concept foreign.

I have no idea from where did you get this in your head? Just because <i>ONE</i> ex Muslim guy has told you so you believe?


Salam


Wael.