Causes

Question:-

I have a question which I will be thankful if you would consider answering. It concerns some ideas in the Quran.

I would like you to read following section of one of Ibn Rushd's book "Religion & Philosophy". This is about fate and predestination. can you give your thoughts on this?

Extract:

"This is one of the most intricate problems of religion. For if you look into the traditional arguments (Hadith) about this problem you will find them contradictory; such also being the case with arguments of reason. The contradiction in the arguments of the first kind is found in the Qur'an and the Hadith. There are many verses of the Qur'an, which by their universal nature teach that all the things are predestined and that man is compelled to do his acts; then there are verses which say that man is free in his acts and not compelled in performing them. The following verses tell us that all the things are by compulsion, and are predestined, "Everything have We created bound by a fixed degree" [Qur'an 56.49]; again, "With Him everything is regulated according to a determined measure" [Qur'an 13.9]. Further, He says, "No accident happened in the earth, nor in your persons, but the same was entered in the Book verily it is easy with God" [Qur'an 57.22]. There may be quoted many other verses on this subject.

Now, as to the verses which say that man can acquire deeds by free will, and that things are only possible and not necessary, the following may be quoted: "Or He destroys them (by ship-wreck), because of that which their crew have merited; though He pardons many things" [Qur'an 42.32]. And again, "Whatever misfortune befalls you is sent you by God, for that which your hands have deserved" [Qur'an 42.32]. Further, He says, "But they who commit evil, equal thereunto" [Qur'an 10.28]. Again, He says, "It shall have the good which it gains, and it shall have the evil which it gains" [Qur'an 2.278]. And, "And as to Thamud, We directed them, but they loved blindness better than the true directions" [Qur'an 41.16].

Sometimes contradiction appears even in a single verse of the Qur'an. For instance, He says, "After a misfortune has befallen you (you had already attained two equal advantages), do you say, whence comes this? Answer, This is from yourselves" [Qur'an 3.159]. In the next verse, He says, "And what happened unto you, on the day whereon the two armies met, was certainly by permission of the Lord" [Qur'an 3.160]. Of this kind also is the verse, "Whatever good befalls you, O man, it is from God; and whatever evil befalls you, it is from yourself" [Qur'an 4.81]; while the preceding verse says, "All is from God" [Qur'an 4.80]. ......

Now it may be asked that if the case is so, how is this contradiction which is to be found both in Hadith and reason to be reconciled we would say, that apparently the purpose of religion in this problem is not to divide it into two separate beliefs, but to reconcile them by means of a middle course, which is the right method. It is evident that God has created in us power by which we can perform deeds which are contradictory in their nature. But as this cannot be complete except by the cause which God has furnished for us, from outside, and the removal of difficulties from them, the deeds done are only completed by the conjunction of both these things at the same time. This being so, the deeds attributed to us are done by our intention, and by the fitness of the causes which are called the Predestination of God, which He has furnished for us from outside. They neither complete the works which we intend nor hinder them, but certainly become the cause of our intending them -- one of the two things. For intention is produced in us by our imagination, or for the verification of a thing, which in itself is not in our power, but comes into being by causes outside us. For instance, if we see a good thing, we like it, without intention, and move towards acquiring it. So also, if we happen to come to a thing which it is better to shun, we leave it without intention. Hence our intentions are bound and attached to causes lying outside ourselves.....

This is necessary because our deeds are only the effects of causes, lying outside us; and all the effects which result from limited and prearranged causes are themselves limited, and are found in a given quantity only. This relation does not exist only between our actions and outside causes, but also between them and the causes which God has created in our body, and the well-defined order existing between the inner and outer causes. This is what is meant by Fate and predestination, which is found mentioned in the Qur'an and is incumbent upon man. This is also the "Preserved Tablet" [Qur'an 85.22]."

Comment:-

As has been pointed before, there is no contradiction in the Quran. The Quran denies it. 4:82. If it is not read that way, the Quran will not be understood. But Allah has created pairs that act together.

Contradictions appear only if you use Greek Logic which are based on Axioms such as Either A or not-A, Not both A and not-A. These are instructions about how words should be used in Philosophy. In fact, in reality, there is always a range of possibilities between one extreme and another and the pendulum swings owing to the interaction of opposite forces. Words are signs and have meaning only when they refer to some experience of something real. That is how words should be used. That is how the Quran uses them.

The fact is that all things have causes and nothing can be done without the appropriate forces and Allah is the Creator of all these forces. You only need to look into yourself to see that any idea you have simply pops into your head You do not create it. The same applies to your feelings, motives and actions.

But causes can be both external and internal. i.e. we depend on materials, energy and information and we get these from the food we eat and the sun and we learn from the environment.

But it is also a fact that there are all kinds of physiological, chemical, electronic and psychological processes going on within us and we have been given the ability to process the data of experience - to think. This is what gives us responsibility. But what we do is not without cause, even if it is the scripture we have read. If our actions were uncaused they would be by chance without reason or purpose. How can such a view be helpful in explaining anything?

But neither the sources of our ability nor the consequences of our actions are under our control. We simply have knowledge of certain regularities, causes and laws according to which we can think and act. We can rearrange in thought and action. This gives us the power to invent new things materially and in thought. But this also produces lies and fantasies.

When you lift your arm to do anything, what is the cause? Is it your intention based on some need? Is it your arm lifting itself, or is it the muscles or the cells of the arm? Or is it the physical processes in your muscles and nervous system, or is it the structure or the chemical processes, or is it the food you have eaten, or is it the society and culture or geo-physical environment or the weather, or the radiation of the sun? Are these causes mutually exclusive? Or do they all work together? Is it a contradiction to say that one of the above is the cause and another is also the cause? No, the contradiction lies in DENYING that one is the cause because the other is the cause.

Question:-

One more thing I need you to clarify for me after reading my thoughts on this.

Our actions are based upon the causes internal or external and the will/intention/processing power which is so called "free will". But this action can create a new cause internal or external which might have been the cause for another action or event. Even in this whole process the prime creator of the cause and effect remain Allah. If we attribute all the effects to Him then how do we justify the corruption and evil in the society, which Allah has refused to attribute to Himself in Quran in many places while accepting the responsibility for creating everything.

I am able to understand the fallacy of Greek Logic by reading your article and I believe at the same time that Allah is the creator of everything including evil and good, but we cannot hold him responsible for creating evil because we invited this cause to be transformed into another cause.

I think the problem of creation arises when we do not distinguish between intervening and permitting or preserving something. For example, if I make a computer program and guide the user as to how to use it and tell him to avoid certain things, I see all his activities on a remote machine but do not intervene even though I do have administrative access to his machine which can halt any of his action. Or I am able to change the logic of my program to disallow it to do certain things.

Now, the user is free to take certain actions on this program based upon the instructions given to him by the programmer and based upon his free will, but within the limits of the access level or capabilities of the application. If he does certain things on this application, this makes him the doer/creator of those actions, but also not the doer/creator of his actions, because he drives all his powers from the administrator.

The other thing that support my argument that human beings are creator of their actions as defined above, is that Allah has created us in his own image and given us His attributes. As Allah is manifesting himself all the time in creation, He is using us as an intermediate to manifest his creation.

A couple of years ago when I used to see certain things made by human beings I used to think: Why does Allah say that He is the creator of everything? And He says in the Quran that He is the owner of the ships which sails but I now think He is right - we are His creation and He uses his creation to create. But unfortunately we as humans think that we are the prime creator instead of attributing it to Allah.

Now my questions is:- Can we use the word co-creator for ourselves keeping in mind that we are not independent of Allah and we drive all the powers of creation from Allah?

Comment:-

The answer is definitely "NO". That is Shirk. But we are agents through whom Allah works.

Your thoughts are not far off the point. But as I said :-There is no Free Will, as this would make other gods. But there is Will and that derives from the Spirit of Allah.

When it is said that man is in the image of Allah, the opposite is not true. It simply means that man can reflect Allah as in a mirror.

There is a distinction between what Allah has Commanded, what He has Ordained and what He permits. (See Views of Islam -View-01 - The Concept of God).

When it is said that Allah is the creator of both good and evil, this refers to what we think as good or evil. What He creates is, by definition, the Good objectively speaking. That is, we cannot judge Allah by any thing other than or greater than Allah that can be called Good. What we judge as good or evil is not the same thing because we judge according to how things affect us. All good comes from Allah, but human beings are able, owing to partial knowledge, cause confusion by causing disorder. Sin is putting things in appropriate places. But it is only inappropriate for us and we suffer as a result. This suffering is a repellent that should lead us to learn and rectify matters. It is, therefore, also Good from an objective point of view, though not from our subjective point of view. Punishment and reward are simply consequences of actions according to law. They are effects of causes and causes of other effects.

The way to see things is as follows:-

Draw a line G (for good) from a point marked A , for 100% good, to a point marked B, for 0% good. Put two points C and D on this line representing two persons or events such that C is nearer A and D is nearer B. Then C is relatively better than D and D is relatively worse than C. D is evil compared to C, but only relatively.

There is no absolute evil. Like darkness which is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good. We have the spirit of Allah in us and ought to Surrender to Allah and be at position A. But we have "fallen" away, and various people are at positions C and D along the line. We must return to position A.

This straight line can be regarded as in the following verses:-

"Allah it is who has created seven heavens, and of the earth similarly. The commandment comes down among them slowly, that you may know that Allah is Able to do all things, and that Allah surrounds all things in knowledge." 65:12

"Then He ordained them seven heavens in two Days and inspired in each heaven its mandate; and We decked the nether heaven with lamps, and rendered it inviolable. That is the measuring of the Mighty, the Knower." 41:1

At each of these levels new forces are created and these act by themselves according to their nature as created by Allah. You can represent this as a series of concentric circles each containing the next as a part. Man can be regarded as being a slice or cross section of this, the Universe, having the same levels. This means his actions can flow from any of these levels.

It is also necessary to get away from the mechanistic deterministic attitude of Western thought, which derives from the unjustified dichotomy made by Descartes between mind and matter. There is no such dichotomy in the Quran. This attitude also creates the notion of "Chance" to explain what "Determinism" cannot. Chance cannot be a cause, but only refers to ignorance. For Islam, the original cause is the Will of Allah. But all things that are created have an inner nature according to which they behave. They act according to inner as well as outer causes. Thus, for instance, when two bodies A and B react, they do so in proportion to each of their masses and the distance between them. In other words things are not forced by external compulsion but react and adjust to external conditions to various degrees according to their nature. Human beings are said to react mechanically like so called "dead matter" when the higher centres are not active. This is unfortunately the normal state of man. But he has the higher level capabilities.

Learning, Development and Evolution

Question:-

It is not only changes that require causes, but also learning, development and evolution. It is supposed in Western science that the nature of a Human person, and perhaps animals also, is the result of two factors, what is inherent or genetic and what acquired from the environment. Is that view compatible with Islam?

Answer:-

That is a Western mechanistic, deterministic view which sees all things as being inert. That is why they also need the idea of an external force that causes these inert things to behave in the way we see them behave. This attitude is incorporated in Newton's Laws of Motions on which the whole of Western science is based, including their Theory of Evolution. This view depends on thinking of things in isolation from their context. And indeed, when scientific studies are done in the laboratories, the things studied are usually isolated so that one variable can be studied in terms of another. But the resulting behaviour is then not the same as when the entity was in its natural context. The description is not really true to nature. But this allows artificial inventions where conditions are also controlled.

I do not think that this is compatible with the Islamic viewpoint which is a holistic one, where all things are seen as arising by progressive differentiation through several stages and levels from a single source and form a single comprehensive self-consistent harmonious system.

“Surely We have created everything according to a measure. And Our command is but one, as the twinkling of an eye.” Quran 54:49-50

"Allah is He Who created seven heavens, and of the earth the like of them. The Commandment continues to descend among them slowly, that you may know that Allah has power over all things and that Allah indeed encompasses all things in knowledge." Quran 65:12

But then the purpose of Islam is not impersonal verbal knowledge but a guide to living in adjustment to Reality, which is a much wider all inclusive goal. However, there is no notion of Free Will either. This is an idea that also exists relative to, and in opposition to determinism. According to the Quran:-

“And unto Allah do prostrate whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the morning and the evening.” 13:15.

“There is no power except in Allah.” 18:40.

Note that reference to the shadow implies that behaviour is a response and not determined by the source of the cause.

But causation requires that there are three factors:- something that produces affects, something that is affected, and a relationship between the two. The effect can be regarded as the resultant of these three factors.

According to the Quran everything is created by the Word of Allah with Truth (Quran 3:47, 6:74, 16:3, 45:22, 46:3) and this gives everything its own structure, functions, instincts and modes of behaviour (Quran 14:48-50, 16:68-69, 10:6-7, 13:8, 15:19, 16:1-16, 17:44, 22:18, 25:2, 67:3 ). The implication is that things do have an inherent nature, and though they have a function and interaction with respect to their environment, they also have a certain degree of autonomy and independence, flexibility and power of adjustment and adaptability. This can be called “intelligence”, though this differs in kind and power according to the nature of the entity. That is, the entities, objects or organisms are not inert, but also affect and are affected by the environment, and the action of the external environment or the objects in it depends not only on the their nature but also on the nature of the object under consideration.

An entity can be defined as being composed of information and is an information processor. It receives an input, "interprets" its environment, behaves accordingly and produces an output that affects other things. (34:2). Perception, thinking and action are conscious modes of doing this. But consciousness is not the same thing as intelligence and it is not at necessary to suppose that one implies the other. There are several degrees of consciousness. We can speak of conscious, sub-conscious and unconscious intelligence as well as of self-conscious, objective conscious and cosmic conscious intelligence. Intelligence, including human intelligence, can be regarded as consisting of a range of alternatives from which selection is made according to a purpose. This requires that information is held in a flexible, not in a rigid form, so that there is a constant fluctuation, analysis and synthesis, separation into units and changing recombination. Intelligence is inversely proportional to rigidity. Allah creates variety, tests and selects (2:155, 3:142, 5:48, 6:166, 9:16, 11:7, 18:7, 47:31, 67:2 ), which makes Intelligence a universal feature of existence.

Basically, it could be said that all things lie in a Field or Sea of Truth or Information. (“Allah indeed encompasses all things in knowledge.” 65:12). And all processes are transactions in Truth or information, though Truth has a wider meaning than information as it includes the notion of fact, meaning and value – that is, it does not imply isolated bits, but something that is related to the whole of which it is apart.

As all things are made of Truth, it is the introduction of truth into things that causes development and leakage of truth causes degeneration. Change simply means changes in inner order or information. As things are information processors, there is a constant input and output of truth.

It should be noted that no distinction is made between matter, energy, force, life and consciousness. (e.g. 22:18, 33:72). These can be regarded as properties (characteristics) of all entities to different degrees. In fact, life and mind can probably be regarded as energy, all being forms of behaviour. Matter refers to inertia and consciousness is a property of spirit. All things arise from a spiritual ground state by the ordering at several stages and levels. (Quran 54:50, 65:12) The cause of events is not prior in time but lies at a higher level.

There are, therefore, three factors, not two, that account for behaviour, learning, development and evolution:- (1) The inherent factor that is connected with an entities inner organization. (2) The nature of the environment in which it exists. (3) The efforts, relationships and interactions of the entity with its environment. This is determined by motives that flow from its structure. It is necessary to understand that a thing is known by its characteristics and these depend on its relationship with other things. If it is put into different contexts the entity will show different set of characteristics.

Learning is the modification of the entity owing to its experiences and efforts. It is possible that this can be destructive or constructive or simply altering. Or it can also be cumulative, associative, analytic and synthetic. It can increase or decrease in complexity or simplicity. These terms are relative. A term by which we describe something may be a simple one but internally complex owing to its comprehensiveness. Or we can describe it in a complex manner using non-comprehensive terms. Try describing the money earning behaviour of a person in terms of the behaviour of the cells or atoms he is composed of.

Learning can be about systems of facts, meanings and values. All three constitute knowledge and knowledge is defined as awareness of truth. Factual systems refer to bodies of Knowledge. Meaning systems are modes of processing such as logic and mathematics or modes of interacting with other people or technological processes. Value systems refer to ethics, morality, purposes and goals.

There is already in man, and other creatures, inherent information in all these respects, and there is also information in the environment which may unconsciously or subconsciously affect man. But it is also necessary for man to seek and discover it consciously, in the environment, within himself and through his interactions. (“O Lord, increase us in knowledge.” 20:114

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