According to a widely held understanding in society, some people accept “divine will”—that is, Allah’s infinite will, yet attribute an independent power of choice to humans under the name of “partial will.” In other words, they believe in the existence of a model where people are capable of determining their own paths and holding the power to make decisions. Adopting this opinion as a fundamental belief, they say, “It is predetermined in your destiny that you will go from point A to point B, but how you get there is up to you,” or “Marrying this person is in your destiny, but how that marriage will proceed is up to you.” However such understanding is a serious misconception stemming from a failure to properly understand Allah’s power. Allah states in His verses that there is no decision-making authority other than Himself. This truth is clearly revealed in verses 30 of Surah Al-Insan and 29 of Surah At-Takwir, where it is stated, "You cannot will unless Allah, the Lord of the worlds, wills it."
Whole destiny and free will belong entirely to Allah. Allah created the entire universe from nothing. In the verses, Allah describes His power of creation as follows:
It is He who gives life and causes to die. When He decides on something,He just says to it, ‘Be!’ and it is. (Surah Al-Mu'min, 68)
He is the Originator of the heavens and earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, ‘Be!’ and it is. (Surah Al-Baqarah, 117)
The likeness of ‘Isa in Allah’s sight is the same as Adam. He created him from earth and then He said to him,‘Be!’ and he was. (Surah Al-Imran, 59)
As these verses clearly state, Allah is sovereign over all His creation, and this sovereignty continues perpetually. To believe that humans possess independent will is a grave error, implying, God forbid, that Allah is in a state of helplessness. Those who advocate the idea of partial free will, knowingly or unknowingly, deny the sovereignty of a Creator over themselves.
To claim that beings who are constantly under control possess a power of decision-making power independent of Allah means failing to understand Allah's power of creation. This approach is a dangerous way of thinking that borders on arrogance towards Allah, and therefore, sincere believers must avoid it with the utmost care and caution. Allah is the sole possessor of power. There is only one will that governs the entire universe, and that will belongs to Allah. Humans have no possibility of making decisions other than what Allah has decreed. Allah holds all His creation under His sovereignty. Allah is closer to man than his jugular vein.
We created man and We know what his own self whispers to him. We are nearer to him than his jugular vein. And the two recording angels are recording, sitting on the right and on the left. He does not utter a single word, without a watcher by him, pen in hand. (Surah Al-Kaf, 16-18)
All sovereignty over the universe belongs to Allah:
The kingdom of the heavens and the earth and everything in them belongs to Allah. He has power over all things. (Surah Al-Maidah, 120)
Glory be to Him Who has the Dominion of all things in His Hand. To Him you will be returned. (Surah Yasin, 83)
Everything in the heavens and everything in the earth belongs to Allah… Allah has power over all things. (Surah Al-Baqarah, 284)
Allah informs us in His verses that He created everything according to a destiny:
We have created all things in due measure. (Surah Al-Qamar, 49)
Say: ‘Nothing can happen to us except what Allah has ordained for us. He is Our Master. It is in Allah that the believers should put their trust.’ (Surah At-Tawbah, 51)
In this verse, Allah states that nothing befalls any human being except what He wills, thus indicating that everything that happens is under Allah's control.
"There is no calamity that befalls the earth or yourselves but that it was written in a book before We created it. Indeed, that is easy for Allah, so that you may not grieve over what you have lost and not rejoice over what He has given you. And Allah does not love the arrogant." (Al-Hadid, 22-23)
In these verses, Allah informs us that all destiny was written in a book before the creation of the universe and humanity, and that it is impossible to deviate from it. What a person should do is to know that what they lose is part of their destiny and that it is God's will, and not to grieve over it; and to remember that what they possess is also God's will, and not to become arrogant or boastful by attributing superiority to themselves.
He to whom the kingdom of the heavens and the earth belongs. He does not have a son and He has no partner in the Kingdom. He created everything and determined it most exactly. (Surah Al-Furqan, 2)
The keys of the Unseen are in His possession. No one knows them but Him. He knows everything in the land and sea. No leaf falls without His knowing it. There is no seed in the darkness of the earth, and nothing moist or dry which is not in a Clear Book. (Surah Al-Anam, 59)
As the verses reveal, all destiny is in the hands of God. No one has the power to make a decision, determine destiny, or present will.
Comprehension of the concept of time is significant in understanding destiny. God created the entire universe in a single moment. In reality, time does not exist in God's sight; everything maintains their form when they were created within eternity. Time appears to exist to us because we are part of this chain of events that has already been created and completed.
All the events we perceive as past and future are actually already created, but because humans cannot see this sequence as a whole, they think that time "flows." The perception called time is actually a method of comparing one moment to another. A person perceives time by comparing what is in their memory with the present moment. Without this memory and comparison, there would be no perception of time.
Today it is scientifically accepted that time is a psychological perception arising from the sequence among moving objects. This relative nature of time is also very clearly experienced in dreams; events that seem to last for hours actually end in a few seconds.
The verses in the Qur’an also point to the relativity of time by stating that people will think they spent only a very short time on Earth, perceiving their lifespan as just a day or a little more. Furthermore, a day in the sight of God is expressed in terms of a thousand years or fifty thousand years, unlike what humans count - which is also a clear evidence of the relativity of time.
In an order where the future doesn't actually exist, and where everything is created and completed in a single moment, it's not possible for humans to make future plans and take decisions on their own. God already knows everything that is unknown to us. A destiny that is predetermined, lived, and already completed cannot be changed at the last moment. Events that seem to change are already part of that destiny.
Some people, unable to comprehend this magnificent art of Creation, are overcome by the desire to possess a limited free will. This is a frantic quest for ego gratification, stemming from the belief that one can produce better things through one’s own intellect. Yet humans are created with a nature that is helpless, selfish, greedy, and ungrateful. Some people, due to this arrogance of grandeur, cannot accept submitting to the destiny created by Allah. It is a serious delusion for a human being, who is actually helpless and incapable and remembers only a fraction of what he has lived through, grows old, and cannot even claim ownership of own body to claim control over the flawless order of the universe.
Human life is entrusted to our Almighty God, who knows us better than we know ourselves. It is a great comfort to know that all destiny is in God's hands and surrender to Him. God always makes what He creates good. What a person should do is to look at everything with a positive perspective, knowing that God has created and completed everything. God has given this secret to humanity in one of His verses:
"... It may be that you hate something when it is good for you and it may be that you love something when it is bad for you. Allah knows and you do not know." (Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:216)
If a person forgets that the events in destiny are under God's control, they fall into a darkness that envelops their soul. This is self-oppression. The only way to escape this restless state of mind is to surrender to the destiny created by God and to trust in Him with complete submission.
It is scientifically proven that all of destiny unfolds and comes to an end within a single, infinite moment. In his study in 2008, neuroscientist John-Dylan Haynes reveals that the decision to press a button had already been made and encoded in the subjects’ brains exactly 10 seconds before they actually pressed it. In other words, before a person makes an instantaneous choice, the choice to be made is already determined in the brain. For this reason, the scientific community defines the concept of free will as nothing more than an illusion. We feel that we are choosing, but in reality, this is not the case.
Similarly, neuropsychologist Benjamin Libet discovered that brain activity emerges 500 milliseconds before the conscious intention to move. Prof. Itzhak Fried, on the other hand, detected neuronal activity 1.5 seconds before a person’s conscious decision and noted that the decision is incorporated into consciousness only afterward. These scientific experiments show that decisions are made through processes outside of our control, and we are only given the feeling that "we made that decision" later on. The fact that a reaction to an event is prepared in the brain seconds beforehand proves that people are watching a captivating film whose script is predetermined in every frame. Choice does not belong to the human being, yet this feeling is specifically given to us to make the world of trials seem convincing.
It is a great blessing for us that our entire destiny belongs to God. The thought that a human being, with their limited intellect, weaknesses, and frailties, determines their own future through their own will would be terrifying. This would inevitably lead to disappointment and create an environment that drags a person into an unavoidable impasse within a chain of stray events. Such a world only brings destruction to those who desire it. Our destiny is in the hands of the Almighty God, who created the entire universe from nothing and created everything perfectly. Human beings should recognize the beauty and ease provided by this great truth, follow the destiny created for their good with great peace and trust, and have complete faith in Allah. Only in this way is it possible to break free from the chains of the world and gain the Hereafter.
