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5
3008-3032

  • Does any reasonable man strike a brickbat? Does any one reprove a stone?
  • In (the eyes of) reason, Necessitarianism (jabr) is more shameful than the doctrine of (absolute) Free-will (qadar), because the Necessitarian is denying his own (inward) sense.
  • The man who holds the doctrine of (absolute) Free-will does not deny his (inward) sense: (he says), ‘The action of God is not mediated by the senses, O son.’ 3010
  • He who denies the action of the Almighty Lord is (virtually) denying Him who is indicated by the indication.
  • That one (the believer in absolute Free-will) says, ‘There is smoke, but no fire; there is candle-light without any resplendent candle’;
  • And this one (the Necessitarian) sees the fire plainly, (but) for the sake of denial he says it does not exist.
  • It burns his raiment, (yet) he says, ‘There is no fire’; it (the thread) stitches his raiment, (yet) he says, ‘There is no thread.’
  • Hence this doctrine of Necessity is Sophisticism (Scepticism): consequently he (the Necessitarian), from this point of view, is worse than the infidel (believer in absolute Free-will). 3015
  • The infidel says, ‘The world exists, (but) there is no Lord’: he says that (the invocation) ‘O my Lord!’ is not to be approved.
  • This one (the Necessitarian) says, ‘The world is really naught’: the Sophist (Sceptic) is in a tangle (of error).
  • The whole world acknowledges (the reality of) the power of choice: (the proof is) their commanding and forbidding (each other)—‘Bring this and do not bring that!’
  • He (the Necessitarian) says that commanding and forbidding are naught and that there is no power of choice. All this (doctrine) is erroneous.
  • Animals (too) acknowledge (the reality of) the (inward) sense, O comrade, but it is a subtle (difficult) matter to apprehend the proof (of this). 3020
  • Inasmuch as (the reality of) our power of choice is perceived by the (inward) sense, responsibility for actions may well be laid upon it.
  • The inward consciousness of having the power to choose or of acting under compulsion, of anger or self-restraint, of repletion or hunger, corresponds to the senses that know and distinguish yellow from red and small from great and bitter from sweet and musk from dung and hard from soft—by the sense of touch—and hot from cold and burning (hot) from lukewarm and wet from dry and contact with a wall from contact with a tree. Therefore he who denies inward consciousness denies the senses, and (he does) more (than that), (for) inward consciousness is more evident than the senses, inasmuch as one can bind the senses and prevent them from functioning, while it is impossible to bar the way to the experiences of inward consciousness and stop their entrance. And an indication is enough for the wise.
  • Inward consciousness corresponds to (external) sensation: both run in the same channel, O uncle.
  • ‘Do’ or ‘don't,’ command and prohibition, discussions and talk are suitable to it (the inward consciousness).
  • (The thought), ‘To-morrow I will do this or I will do that,’ is a proof of the power to choose, O worshipful one;
  • And (in the case of) the penitence which you have felt for (having committed) an evil deed, you have been led (into the right path) through your power of choice. 3025
  • The entire Qur’án consists of commands and prohibitions and threats (of punishment): who (ever) saw commands given to a marble rock?
  • Does any wise man, does any reasonable man, do this? Does he show anger and enmity to brickbats and stones?—
  • Saying, ‘I told you to do thus or thus: why have ye not done it, O dead and helpless ones?’
  • How should reason exercise any authority over wood and stone? How should reason lay hold of the painted figure of a cripple,
  • Saying, ‘O slave with palsied hands and broken legs, take up the lance and come to battle’? 3030
  • How, (then), should the Creator who is the Maker of stars and sky make commands and prohibitions like those of an ignorant person?
  • You have removed from God the possibility of impotence, (but) you have (virtually) called Him ignorant and stupid and foolish.