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Spirit of Islam Issue 35 November 2015
FREEDOM OF CHOICE
The ‘Trust’
God’s giving man the
blessing of ‘the Trust’
was for man a great
mercy.
In the context of the creation of Adam, the Quran
(33: 72)
says:
We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains,
but they refused to bear it, because they were afraid of it. But man
bore it: he surely proved unjust and ignorant.
H
ERE, the Quran refers to the distinctive feature of Adam
(mankind)—free will. The rest of the universe has no such
freedom. In accordance with this plan of freedom of choice,
God created man. By ‘the Trust’ in the above Quranic passage is meant
freedom of choice or free-will. A natural result of the capabilities given
to man was that he became an adventurist. It
is this reality that is referred to as ‘unjust’ and
‘ignorant’.
God’s giving man the blessing of ‘the Trust’
was for man a great mercy. There was an
apprehension that on acquiring this freedom,
man would become victim to corruption. But
it is these very conditions in which a desirable
human being is produced, referred to in the
Quran as a
‘momin’
, or believer.
Man is no angel, and it is only human to err. But, the glory of man is
that he repents after he makes a mistake. He asks God for forgiveness.
That is, he takes a U-turn. God promises that He will accept our
repentance. Doing something wrong and then repenting and asking
God for forgiveness is no simple matter. It is an intellectual process
that leads man to higher levels of personality development, and finally,
making him eligible for entry into Paradise.
o
Right Approach
We have to understand the scheme of things in
this world and adjust ourselves accordingly.