Friday, March 02, 2018

Rather than seeing the question of human free will as a question merely of choices between options on a particular plane of reality, Sufis have seen free will ultimately as a characteristic pertaining to a particular state of being. Only insofar as human beings rise above their egotistical desires and submit the will that pertains to their own individuality to God do they realise true freedom in God. But those who attain this true freedom only will what God wills, because they exist in a state of perfect submission to the good and thus also display the attributes of something that is, as it were, totally determined. This is exemplified in a paradox discussed by Ibn Arabi, who says that those saints (awliya) most capable of performing miracles are the least likely to do so, since they are most content with God's Will for the world and themselves. Moreover, qadar, or one's "lot", is seen, in the ultimate sense, as a manifestation of one's own nature or essence as known by God before one's creation.

-- Study Quran

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