Ants In a Glass Box

هُوَ الْحَيُّ الْمُدَبِّرُ كُلَّ أَمْرٍ

هُوَ الْحَقُّ الْمُقَدِّرُ ذُوْ الْجَلَالِ 

‘He is the Ever Alive

Governor of Everything 

He is The Truth

The Measurer of Everything

The Possessor of Magnificence’

  العلم تابع للمعلوم

It is within the Dhaat of Allah that all knowing stems from that which is known, and that all which is possible exists within that which is known by him alone, like a stroke of paint across the canvass from the most perfect artist. He is اَلْعَلِيْمُ, whose essence is beyond the reach of our minds and understandings.

Classified as part of the sifat al-ma’nawiyya (predicative attributes) it is ascribed to predicated meanings from the qualitative attributes. He who possesses this Knowledge must acquire a state, namely, that He is knowledgeable of that to which His Knowledge is linked. This state is expressed by saying that He is All-Knowing with omniscience, and the same is said for the remaining attributes. 

Naturally the question over free will erupts, but before getting to that I find it important to take a look at Emergent Universe Theory, which is gaining steam within scientific communities as astronomy and physics continue to accelerate in their modelling capacities respectively. In short, Emergent Universe Theory purports that our version of ‘time’ is not fundamental, and it stems from a deeper time which is inaccessible to us in our current limited state.

‘Ubādah ibn As-Sāmit (may Allah be pleased with him) said to his son: "O Son, you will not taste true faith until you know that whatever has come to you would never have missed you, and that whatever has missed you would never have come to you. I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'The first thing Allah created was the Pen. He commanded it to write. It said: 'My Lord, what shall I write?' He said: 'Write down what has been ordained for all things until the establishment of the Hour.'" O Son, I heard the Messenger of Allah (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) say: 'Whoever dies believing otherwise does not belong to me.'"

“ Underneath the molecules, atoms, and particles there is another layer of reality that is coming to light. It is a layer that is based on information “

–Brian Greene (physicist) 

In understanding the emergent nature of our universe, time and space are simply by-products. Our world is emergent from a more fundamental reality, stemming from a quantum realm which is fully understood and encoded dynamically by Allah alone, sometimes favouring his humble servants. Within this realm consciousness is a gift given to humanity, so that we may have say over our selves within space time, as ants within a giant glass jar filled with soil and plants, perhaps another gem can be gleamed from when the Prophet PBUH said:

‏الدنيا سجن المؤمن وجنة الكافر 

Taking the part about the Mu’min aside, this world is a prison for us all in the sense that it inherently contains limits as understood through the nizam of Allah within our Universe. These limits are even set upon our imagination, as none can truly imagine the sensory overload of what is to come in the hereafter.

 Among Muslims throughout history, a debate has occurred between four schools of thought around the context of predestination and it’s relation to human will.  Those of the Jabariyah believing that all human action and will is forced by the hand of destiny unwavering, with the Mut’azzilites and Qadariya perceiving  human free will to be a primary manifester in this world. When we know our Lord says “والله خلقكم وما تعملون” (Allah created you and your deeds) it is difficult to accept their perspectives as entirely true.

The idea of Maghlubul haal to a degree lends itself to the Jabariyah school of thought, where human emotion(perhaps separate from will, as was the case with the Prophet’s love for Aisha R.A.) is compelled. Allah says he is closer to us than our jugular vein. I don’t see how believing in this warranted the execution of Al-Ja'd ibn Dirham, as this thought alone wouldn’t seem worthy of being executed. This is of course unless he was utilizing ‘Allah’s will‘ as a cover for repeated heinous teachings stemming from human will with false divine cover, attempting to be brushed aside in favour of blaming destiny, leading to massive societal issues. E.G. If a person is killing innocent people repeatedly and believing it to be the will of Allah, then that is dangerous. With the Asha’ira and Maturidi understanding came a more balanced perspective that humans cannot actually create anything, acquiring will and action instead, thus somewhat responsible within the bounds of the vastness which Allah has created even in this limited sphere of liquid and dust. Allah loves that we take full responsibility for our actions and their results whenever negative, even where destiny is concerned, attributing those that are positive solely to him, as an apparent sign to him of our Love. His will is overarching ours, and our will is created by Him, but within His will we have been given free will.

To put human will into perspective, let’s take a look at ants. Ants, perhaps aside from the one that warned of the army of Solomon (AS) potentially crushing his tribe, at least to our current knowledge, do not have any understanding of human will, intelligence, or capacity to impact their life, even if they are in our backyard, it is generally not within their capacity to understand such things. I make this caveat that ultimately Allah knows best, perhaps there are some ants whom Allah has granted such closeness to him that he has granted them certain wisdom, capacity, and knowledge unattainable by any human to date. Now imagine we put a million ants in the middle of a glass container the size of Lake Ontario filled with all they would need to self sustain themselves independently. Within the glass container they would feel and know no constraints to their will, carving tunnels and engaging in ant politics to no end. It would take generations for one of them to become aware let alone reach any boundary where their march could be halted. To add some perspective, it takes 21 million ants to equal the average person in terms of weight. Whatever possible will the ants would have would be constrained to that time and space which the designer, creator, and placer of the container had defined it to be, nothing more, nothing less. The ants in this case, their will and action, could be seen as acquired, as is ours. Allah knows best.

“I am running from the Qadr of Allah towards the Qadr of Allah”

-      Umar Radhiallahuanu

It’s for الله