What is Free Will in Islam?

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A brief description

Allah ﷻ created us from a single drop and gifted us with intellect which makes us superior to all other creation on earth. It is this intellect that provides us the ability to exercise our free-will. In addition to intellect, Allah ﷻ sent revelation to us through His Prophets that guides us in exercising our free-will and live according to our choices. The choices we make in this life, between right or wrong and good or evil would have consequences in our lives in hereafter. Allah ﷻ has said all of this in the Quran: “Verily, it is We who have created man out of a drop of sperm intermingled, so that We might try him [in his later life]: and therefore We made him a being endowed with hearing and sight. Verily, We have shown him the way: [and it rests with him to prove himself] either grateful or ungrateful.”[1] After gifting us with intellect that assists us to use our reason and exercise free will, we are given the choice to either accept or reject the divine guidance given through revelation, and this God given liberty has also been mentioned in the Quran: “The truth [has now come] from your Sustainer: let, then, him who wills, believe in it, and let him who wills, reject it.”[2] Thus by making use of our free-will in accepting or rejecting guidance, both choices have their consequences in the hereafter and this is free-will according to Islam, in a nutshell.

References:
[1]Al Quran 76:2-3 – Asad Translation.
[2]Al Quran 18:29 – Asad Translation.

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