LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

BAUE: THE CURRENT DEBATE ON PREDESTINATION 25
Other verses support free will: “We gave them guidance, but they preferred
blindness (of heart) to Guidance: so the stunning Punishment of humiliation
seized them, because of what they had earned” (41:17). And again,
“Whatever misfortune happens to you, is because of the things your hands
have wrought, and for many (of them) He grants forgiveness” (42:30).
Thus we see that Islam is like a Christianity reduced to the First Article.
There is no grace, no mercy, no Gospel, no assurance of salvation, no way to
have a relationship with a loving and merciful God. Predestination in this
scheme of thought is doubled in intensity.
Not surprisingly, given the long exchange of ideas between Islamic and
Christian thinkers, we find a current Muslim scholar drawing a parallel
between the two religions on the subject of predestination. Ismail Mohamed,
Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the National University of Malasia, in a
2000 English-language article in the London-based Islamic Quarterly, finds
similar strains of thought between Aquinas, the Christian theologian, and
Averroes (1126-1198), 27 the Muslim philosopher: “Predestination is a crucial
problem not only in Islam but also in Christianity. There has been a long and
continuous discussion by theologians on both sides.” 28 As Mohamed notes,
the problem within Islam is whether or not man has free will. If he does not,
then his action is controlled by an outside power. If he does, “God’s
omnipotence is challenged”. 29 He cites Averroes to show that there is double
predestination in Islam: “These were created for Paradise and they do work
for the people of Paradise, and these were created for hell and they do work
for the people of hell.” 30 And again, “Aquinas, like Averroes, recognizes that
God separates men into two divisions, namely, to some God gives grace and
guides them to his path, and the others he leaves in error.” 31 Mohamed
explains by saying that “the first tradition [of Muhammad] shows that the
cause of disbelief (Kufr) is one’s own environment, and the second points
standard English translation of the Qur’an. I picked a free copy on a visit to the local mosque,
Daar-ul-Islam, in St. Louis.
27 http://i-cias.com/e.o/averroes.htm. Averroes (Arabic: Ibn Rushd) was born in Cordoba,
Spain, 1126, and died in Marrakech, 1198. He was a Muslim thinker strongly influence by
Aristotle, and had frequent dialogue with Christian theologians.
28 Ismail Mohamed, “Concept of Predestination in Islam and Christianity: Special Reference
to Averroes and Aquinas”, The Islamic Quarterly 44.2 (2000): 393. This periodical seems to
represent the more moderate strain in Muslim thought. Averroes in his day was certainly a
progressive thinker. Little of his work is available in Arabic.
29 Mohamed, 393.
30 Mohamed, 394. The fn. citing Averroes’ work is incomplete. There are a number of typos
and editorial errors in Mohamed’s article, possibly due to an Arabic-speaking staff producing
an English-language journal.
31 Mohamed, 403.