We are absolutely free to believe or disbelieve
in God. It is God's will that we will (18:29, 25:57, 73:19, 74:37,
76:29, 78:39, 80:12).
After committing our original sin, God gave us
a chance to denounce our crime and accept His absolute authority 33:72. But
we decided that we wanted to see a demonstration of Satan's competence as
a god. Many people protest the fact that
God has created them, to put them through this gruesome test. Obviously,
such people are not aware that [1] they
have committed a horrendous crime and [2]
that they were given a chance to denounce their crime and redeem themslves,
but they chose to go through the test.
We learn from 57:22 that our lives, along with
everything else around us, are pre-recorded on something like a
videotape. God fully knows what kind of
decision each of us is destined to make; He
knows which of us are going to Heaven and which are going to Hell. Even before
we were born into this world, God knew
which souls are good and which souls are evil.
As far as God's omniscience is concerned, we can
imagine a stamp on everyone's forehead that says "Heaven" or "Hell."
Yet, as far as we are concerned, we are
totally free to side with God's absolute authority, or Satan's polytheistic
views. Predestination, therefore, is a
fact as far as God is concerned, not as far as we are concerned.
This understanding explains the numerous verses
stating that
"God guides whomever
He wills, and misleads whomever He wills."
Based on His knowledge, God assigns our
souls to the circumstances that we deserve. When God said to the angels,
"I know what you do not
know" (2:30), this meant that
some of us deserved a chance to redeem ourselves. One example of God's guidance
for those who deserve guidance is found in 21:51:
"We granted Abraham
his guidance, for we were fully aware of him."
In other words, God knew that Abraham was
a good soul who deserved to be guided, and God granted him his guidance and
understanding. Another good example
is stated in 12:24. Joseph fell for the Egyptian nobleman's wife, and almost
committed adultery
"if it were not
that he saw a sign from his Lord."
God teaches us in 12:24 that He
"diverted evil and sin
from Joseph, for he was one of My devoted worshipers."
Was it Joseph who controlled his lust? Or, was
it God's protection from sin that rendered him chaste?
Such is
predestination.