Does God know whole of the future of the individual

[Wakas]

Putting an = sign does not make it equal.

If God intervenes, which He would have to repeatedly do if He did not know what was going to happen, would mean no fixed structure/scale to work within thus determining one's good/bad would be difficult. Of course, you could say "but God is Just, if he changes the scale, He would do it in a fair way". Seems odd conceptually.

It would be interested if any Quranic argument could be made. I haven't seen any.

[1CELOSTNOWFOUND]

Peace

Wakas wrote:

I can only assume that those who think God does not know which option we will choose is that He reveals scripture to certain people and He had no idea if they were going to say "nah, not really my thing God, make someone else a messenger" or if they would be killed next week! Probability suggests that this would have happened, i.e. there were other messengers but they got killed half way through their mission and God said "oops, never saw that coming, oh well, I will try another".

This is of course absurd.

Why is this absurd? I don't know. Is there Quranic evidence that supports this position.

I don't recall the verse now, but isn't there a verse that says something about what would happen if a messenger does not carry out his duty as he should?

Imraan

[1CELOSTNOWFOUND]

Peace

you gunna eat that wrote:

Peace,

In the example, the participant is ignorant of the fact that he was no other possibilities; we humans are too.

Peace

I'm not sure what difference this makes. In the end result, there is no reality to any apparent freedom in making the decision due to what is effectively pre-determination of decision. It is pre-determined because no other choice can be made.

Imraan

[Alen]

Putting an = sign does not make it equal.

If God intervenes, which He would have to repeatedly do if He did not know what was going to happen, would mean no fixed structure/scale to work within thus determining one's good/bad would be difficult. Of course, you could say "but God is Just, if he changes the scale, He would do it in a fair way". Seems odd conceptually.

It would be interested if any Quranic argument could be made. I haven't seen any.

Peace,
Respect.

Remember the story of the guys in the cave?

18:26 Say: God is fully aware how long they remained, to Him is the unseen of the heavens and the earth, He sees and hears. They do not have besides Him any ally, and He does not share in His judgment with anyone.

Peace.

[darcus]

Salamun alaikum,

I think it's important to remember that we can never know or understand Allah truly apart from what He tells us through His revelations.  A little bit like a magical self-aware bacterium being aware of the nature of a human.

If it is assumed that we live in a holographic universe and all the information in that universe (past, present and future) is encoded on the edge of that universe, then it is conceivable that a sufficiently advanced being outside the universe could 'read' the encoded information.  Again, having foreknowledge of what will happen does not mean that the being who knew the outcome was CAUSING the outcome.

Another thing I used to imagine is that every single choice, every single grain of sand and position of the smallest atom is known to Allah.  Having knowledge of all the information in the universe at all points is again stating that He would know the ultimate outcome and all the choices we make, but the choices that are made are all OURS and our responsibility.

I hope that makes some sense...!
d

[nerspi]

i think sometimes people don't really differentiate between 'free will' and 'unlimited will',
some people think having free will means they can do literally anything, but that's wrong, we are free to act however we like but in a limited world. a person in prison also has free will, only that it's even more limited for that person.

so God knowing our decisions doesn't mean we have no free will, has nothing to do with that, only that He is the best calculator ever...
even we simple limited humans already built similar things, in internet for example, if you type a few letters in google search it already finishes the word or sentence... and since God is more advanced then our inventions, He knows even better what we'll do or say...

sometimes even humans can know to some point what others will do, if you know someone long enough and spend a lot of time with them, you know what they'll do (of course it may change depending on circumstances and environment) but since God knows each one even better and knows all the circumstances and all possibilities He knows what will happen, which road we'll take... doesn't mean He made us do that or drove us to that decision, although He can, perhaps offers us through reasoning which is better

[Halil]

Peace to all of you.

This is often claimed, but it is very clear that God is in no need of anyone or anything. This life is not for God, this life is for us, it is our self-testimony. This life is a test and all our actions are our exam paper, and we hand it in, willingly or unwillingly, when its over.

Let's say you have a teacher, and he knows his students very well, why not at the end of the course pass and fail them according to what he thinks? Of course, students would cry out this is unfair, so what would the students demand? Something that allows them to prove themselves, to determine their ability, a test! Hence why we're here.

We accepted the amana/trust:
http://free-minds.org/thetrust.

I completely agree with you there Wakas. To me it seems reasonable to assume that the purpose of us being here is to bring out the truth in us in a way which we have had a personal impact on its outcome and experienced all our decisions and actions, so that when we face our creator we will be questioned on all our desicions and actions and be judged by those with perfect justice.
Imagine instead one day you wake up in hell in pain and suffering, and you ask of God "why am i here, what have i done?". Would it seem reasonable that you got an answer going something in the way of "i know youd be a sinner anyway, so theres no need to go through all the trouble with comitting you to the first life before you end up here."

Also the Quran in its entirety unmistakably and repeatedly teaches us of the omnipotence of God ALMIGHTY, there is nothing that he is not capable of and im sure he is capable of things way beyond anything we could ever imagine.

God knows best, may he guide us all who seek his guidance.

[Wootah]

Pre-Cognisant Omnipotence = No Free Will Accountability.

Plain and simple.

If Allah, Subhanu Wa Ta'Ala, knows what we will do before we do it..then what is the point indeed.  It becomes a robotic universe.

To me, and my limited understanding, it makes a whole lot more sense if Allah gave us the capacity to act for the good or the bad.  It makes the universe infinitely more interesting and beautiful.  In this scenario, Allah is all powerful.  Which means, he can intervene directly in human affairs so that his will is done.  Someone could choose to do something that is contrary to his will, but he intervenes and that person is not permitted to achieve their ends.  He is omnipotent, which means to me, he has eyes and ears everywhere that do not fail in reporting. 

Just my two cents.

How does knowing something = controlling something?

[1CELOSTNOWFOUND]

Peace

Wootah wrote:

How does knowing something = controlling something?

Maybe it's just me, but I think this line of argument is not rational. Knowing something does not mean you control it.

Example: I know my son is an excellent artist. If he is, this is a fact. He loves drawing roses. I can't control him or his art.

What we are discussing is different. I know that my son is an excellent artist. He will only draw roses. If this is a fact, I may not be controlling him, but he is controlled. He has no choice.

If we accept that God knows all the decisions we will make due to Him having all the facts, etc, no problem. But then we are discussing things beyond our capabilities. These things are not in line with the limited reasoning that we are afforded. Will we ever be able to satisfy 17:36 in discussing this? Our reasoning will be going outside the realm of our human capabilities. We should then leave such discussions alone.

If we accept that God chooses to limit what He knows concerning us, we can freely discuss what this means because it is within our reasoning capabilities.

Once again, I would re-iterate that just because God CHOOSES to limit His knowledge concerning our decisions does not impede on His characteristic of being Omnipotent.

The argument that it would impede on His quality of being All Knowing doesn't make sense to me either. Being All Knowing, He knows that knowledge of all our decisions, renders our freedom of choice nothing but pie in the sky.

If we are to accept that we are playing out something that is in accordance with something we have already done, then this looks very much like a game to me. I don't think that God plays games. It would be something like a bookie accepting wagers on a race that has already being fixed.

Anyway, maybe this is a discussion well left alone if we accept that it is beyond our comprehension.

Imraan

[Wootah]

Peace

Wootah wrote:
Maybe it's just me, but I think this line of argument is not rational. Knowing something does not mean you control it.

Example: I know my son is an excellent artist. If he is, this is a fact. He loves drawing roses. I can't control him or his art.

What we are discussing is different. I know that my son is an excellent artist. He will only draw roses. If this is a fact, I may not be controlling him, but he is controlled. He has no choice.

If we accept that God knows all the decisions we will make due to Him having all the facts, etc, no problem. But then we are discussing things beyond our capabilities. These things are not in line with the limited reasoning that we are afforded. Will we ever be able to satisfy 17:36 in discussing this? Our reasoning will be going outside the realm of our human capabilities. We should then leave such discussions alone.

If we accept that God chooses to limit what He knows concerning us, we can freely discuss what this means because it is within our reasoning capabilities.

Once again, I would re-iterate that just because God CHOOSES to limit His knowledge concerning our decisions does not impede on His characteristic of being Omnipotent.

The argument that it would impede on His quality of being All Knowing doesn't make sense to me either. Being All Knowing, He knows that knowledge of all our decisions, renders our freedom of choice nothing but pie in the sky.

If we are to accept that we are playing out something that is in accordance with something we have already done, then this looks very much like a game to me. I don't think that God plays games. It would be something like a bookie accepting wagers on a race that has already being fixed.

Anyway, maybe this is a discussion well left alone if we accept that it is beyond our comprehension.

Imraan

Well it is definitely one we can only speculate about.