Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | Speaking Tree Website | July 20, 2015

I am also asked this question often, "if there is destiny, then where is the question of a 'free will'?" The fact of the matter is that God has provided the infrastructure to man in the form of life support system and the different situations that present themselves to man. This is the destiny part of the matter. Man is; however, free to respond to all these different situations, as he likes. That is his free will or his freedom of choice. In this aspect, he is completely free.

Therefore, I say that the matter is 50-50. The destiny plays a 50 percent role, as man cannot change the infrastructure provided to him. Free will plays the remaining 50 percent role, as man is completely free to respond to the situations the way he likes.

This freedom has opened doors of two kinds for man, one leading to success and the other to failure. If, on receiving freedom an individual becomes arrogant and insolent, it will mean that he has failed to pass the test.

But if on the other hand, he remains modest and humble, bowing to his Lord's will on all occasions, he will have made the right use of his God-given freedom: he will, without any compulsion, have bound himself by divine principles. One who chooses this course will succeed in the test of freedom. He will be handsomely rewarded by God as no other creature. Held to be the chosen servant of God, he will remain in an everlasting state of blissfulness and blessedness in the eternal world of paradise.