Note 27 — HUMAN FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY[18]
Syed Nawab Ali translation
Quran VIII. 17. This passage refers to the battle of Badr, the first battle of the Prophet. The Muslims slew the enemy but it is affirmed that really they did not slay, but it was Allah who slew them; the meaning apparently being that Allah’s hand was working in the battle, which is also clear from the fact that three hundred Muslims mostly raw and equipped with neither horses nor sufficient arms, prevailed against a thousand of the most renowned warriors who had come to crush the growing power of Islam. “And Thou didst not smite when thou didst smite”. Ghazzali points out that negation and affirmation for one and the same action throw new light on the nature of causation. Negation affirms God as the efficient and real cause; affirmation establishes man’s free-will faithfully executing divine order.
Whose branches are ever shaken by the wind, And whose fruit is showered on the sleeper’s heads. Fatalism means sleeping amidst highwaymen. Can a cock who crows too soon expect peace? If ye cavil at and accept not God’s hints, Though ye count yourselves men, see, ye are women. The quantum of reason ye possessed is lost, And the head whose reason has fled is a till. Inasmuch as the unthankful are despicable, They are at last cast into the fiery pit. If ye really have trust in God, exert yourselves, And strive in constant reliance on the Almighty. (Translation by E. Whinfield. Masnavi. 2nd ed. 1898. Bk. I, pp. 19-20.)