Chapter Four

Compulsion and freedom

The other important question raised by mediation is that is man free in his selection of doings or he is bound to follow decided path. There are two major groups of philosophers in this regard; one who believe that man is forced and helpless, while the others say that man is free in his doing. Phesagoras is in pool of first group and say this universe is like a machine and man is its part, so he has to work as machine does. But when we mediate in the universe we come to know that man is actually the center of this world not its part. So it will be wrong to resemble man with a machine. On the other hand man can not be considered to be bound with physical laws of the universe because it possess something called soul. In the same way Zenos’ theory is of cause and effect can not be accepted because there are many things, which a man do by his will.
Christen philosopher, Saint Augustine can not be said right due to many reason. Firstly, his theory is based on half- truth. He has presented the sin of Adam, but has ignored the penitence. Secondly he has imposed the sin of Adam on all human being thus support the cruelty. Thirdly he has deviated from Juses sayings on this concept. In abased period many muslim scholars also have tried to answer same question. They can be divided in two major groups. One who believe in absolute freedom of man, they are called Mua’tazila and others who believe that the man is forced and helpless against Allah’s will.
However, the holy Qur'an has presented different view from all above theories. According to it man is free, but this freedom is not absolute. He is free in selection of right and wrong. It says that man cannot do any thing against Allah’s will, but he will be rewarded of his efforts. So we can say that only the holy Qur'an can present satisfactory solutions of our problems.