The Will
The divine spirit breathed into humans is the will, and the will is an attribute situated between two others: above it is knowledge, and below it is power. Through knowledge, will, and power, God brought the worlds into existence. Similarly, humans carry out their actions through knowledge, will, and power, establishing a resemblance between the Creator and the created. This is what is referred to in the saying of the Infallible (the Prophet): “Indeed, God created Adam in His image.”
The will belongs originally to God and is bestowed upon humans as a trust. This trust is the very responsibility (amanah) referenced in the verse: “Indeed, We offered the Trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, and they declined to bear it and feared it; but man [undertook to] bear it. Indeed, he was “unjust” because he claimed for himself what belongs to another, and “ignorant” because he misjudged his capacities, imagining himself to be the master of an independent will.” (33:72). What led humans to this injustice and ignorance is the subtlety of the matter and the precision of its workings. God, in His wisdom, governs the inanimate - gases, liquids, and solids - with direct compulsion. “Say, Are you disbelieving in Him who created the earth in two days and made for Himself equals? That is the Lord of the worlds. And He placed therein firm mountains over it, blessed it, and determined therein its sustenance in four days as equal for the questioners. Then He established Himself above the heaven, which is [as] smoke, and said to the earth, ‘Come willingly or by compulsion.’ They said, ‘We come willingly.’ Then He completed them seven heavens in two days and revealed in each heaven its command. And We adorned the lowest heaven with lamps and protected it. That is the determination of the Exalted in Might, the Knowing.” (7:54)
This is the environment of life. When the conditions on Earth became suitable, life was created, and within it was instilled the "will to live" - a force driven by the desire for survival, working to preserve life. Its guiding principle is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain. At this level of existence, which encompasses plants and animals, Allah’s guidance of creation becomes almost direct, though it operates from behind the veil of the "will to live." It is called "the will to live" because it possesses what is referred to as spontaneous movement. This is because the motives and the strength for its movement, as it appears, are embedded within it. It is a movement utilized by the living being to obtain its sustenance, preserve its life, and maintain its species.
When God elevated life to the level of humanity, He added a new element: the "will for freedom," which differs from the "will to live" only in degree, not in kind. Allah guided humanity first through the "will to live," and then through the "will for freedom." In doing so, His guidance became indirect, and His intervention in our affairs was characterized by such subtlety and precision that it entangled us in the greatest illusion: the belief that we possess an independent, free will capable of choosing or refraining from action.
And here are verses that are a sign indicating the subtle intervention of God's will in directing our will: "[Remember] when you were on the nearer bank [of the valley], and they were on the farther bank, and the caravan was lower [in position] than you. If you had made an appointment, you would have failed to meet [each other]. But [it was] so that Allah might accomplish a matter already destined - that those who perished [through disbelief] would perish upon evidence and those who lived [in faith] would live upon evidence; and indeed, Allah is Hearing and Knowing. When Allah showed them to you in your dream as few; and if He had shown them to you as many, you [believers] would have lost courage and would have disputed in the matter. But Allah saved [you]. Indeed, He is Knowing of that within the breasts. And [remember] when He showed them to you when you met as few in your eyes, and He made you [appear] as few in their eyes so that Allah might accomplish a matter already destined. And to Allah are [all] matters returned." (8:42–44). Behold this gentle kindness, from the side of the ancient divine will, as it intervenes in guiding the newly created human will.
The Prophet sees his enemies in his dream as few, so he resolves to fight them. Had he seen them otherwise, he would not have fought them. Then, at the encounter, the believers see the polytheists as few, so they too resolve to fight them. Likewise, the polytheists see the believers as few, and they in turn resolve to fight them. It is God who shows the Prophet his enemies as few in his dream, and it is God who makes each group see their enemies as few, so that God may accomplish a matter already decreed. All of this occurs without disturbing the "will of freedom" or making it feel any external intervention in its affairs, imposing upon it or depriving it of its freedom.
God created humans with a frail physical constitution, lacking claws and fangs, so that they would rely on ingenuity rather than physical strength. He gave humans a prolonged childhood, ensuring dependence on others and fostering the formation of communities. Weakness of body and the necessity of prolonged care drove humans to live in groups. We have previously discussed the formation of communities and how they established customs to regulate individual impulses. Heinous killing was the inevitable consequence for anyone who violated the norms embraced by the community. Additionally, the wrath of the gods was believed to await the transgressor after death, subjecting them to torment far greater than any punishment the community could inflict. This dual fear - of communal reprisal and divine wrath - haunted the individual, and continued to play a role in compelling him to refrain from violating the laws.
With the emergence of primitive human society, a conflict arose within the human structure between two forces: the ancient animalistic nature, governed by the "will to live," which pursues pleasure by any means, and the modern humanistic nature, governed by the "will for freedom," which seeks pleasure without incurring the wrath of the community or the gods by violating established norms, resulting in lasting pain both in life and after death.
If the desired pleasure can only be achieved by opposing the command of the community - which is always the command of the gods - then the direction of the "will to freedom" lies in abandoning the pursuit of that pleasure in the hope of attaining a greater pleasure: the reward of the community and the reward of the gods, which is better and more lasting. Thus, values entered life that lead the human individual to sacrifice immediate pleasure for anticipated joy or to forego fleeting sensory gratification in favor of spiritual fulfillment, whether immediate or deferred. Such values may be reflected in society's approval, trust, and praise or in the satisfaction of the gods and their rewards, whether in this life or the life to come.
Human society continued to grow, and with it grew its customs and traditions, which became increasingly refined and decisive. Prophets of truth emerged, introducing divine law concerning what is permissible and impermissible, and establishing concepts of heaven and hell and descriptions of the divine. For the prophets of truth and the messengers of humanity did not come to tell people that they have a Creator - this had already been conveyed to them by the messengers of reason. Rather, they came to assist minds in knowing the Creator by teaching them His names, attributes, and actions.
As for the lights of reason, they arose from the fire of friction that continued to occur between the "will to live" and the "will for freedom" due to the ancient fear instilled in the heart of the first human by the inert forces that abounded in the natural environment in which he lived.
We have already noted that the "will for freedom" differs from the "will to live" not in kind but in degree. The "will for freedom" represents the refined, transparent aspect of the "will to live" - it is the spirit, while the "will to live" represents the self. In this sense, the "will to live" can be seen as the "Eve" of the human constitution, and the "will for freedom" as its "Adam." The mind is the offspring of the union between these two forces. At the level of sexual union that produces reason, the "will to live" has another name: memory, and the "will for freedom" is imagination. Memory is the sum of all past experiences, and thus we have called it the self in another context. It has been mentioned that retribution is intended to strengthen imagination in those who need to be placed, through retribution, in the position of their victim.
On the other hand, imagination, another term for intelligence, is the discerning and restraining force against the whims of the self that contradict the law. Intelligence guides the self’s desires through the influences of fear - or, more accurately, through both desire and fear. The better it manages the self's impulses, the stronger its ability to discern becomes. The self may become more compliant or more rebellious, depending on its ability to act justly or its failure to do so and its inclination toward violence and madness.
The mind was born in a divided house, to two contentious parents - a mother who is lustful, wild, highly capricious, and abundant in desires, and a father who is weak, cowardly, driven by fear into violence, rejecting her demands with harshness and strictness, to the extent that he may oppress her and suppress her without justification - its childhood was not happy but rather vagrant, resentful, full of rebellion and deviation. It inherited the traits of its parents and was influenced by the atmosphere of the house in which it was born, thus becoming divided against itself as well, with one part opposing the other. Long ago, it was said, "A house divided cannot stand."
Fear has sedimented in the depths of the self since the inception of life, and before the appearance of humans on its stage. Then the long struggle broke out between the "will to live" and the "will for freedom," which accompanied the appearance of humans on the stage of life and whose blaze continues to rage to this day. And as a result of this struggle, some forbidden desires, which once moved freely, were shackled and suppressed, becoming imprisoned in dark recesses at the edges of the self. All these desires are innate, and many of them, due to their prolonged confinement in darkness, have lost sight and the ability to move. Yet, they have not died; they await the day they will be released from this prison.
The human self today is exposed to numerous afflictions - fear that has become sedimented within it before it became human. This fear exists between the dawn of primitive life, the era when humans first appeared on the stage of existence, the inherited repression since the emergence of human society, and the moment of an individual's birth. Subsequently, there is the acquired repression throughout an individual's life, from birth to death, where laws, customs, and public opinion dictate, repressing desires that lack approval for their movements and expressions in freedom and fluency.
All repression is caused by fear - whether it is the primitive, naïve, unjustified fear or the rational, balanced fear with known and reasonable causes. Fear has left a chronic imprint on the human self.
The fear, in its essence, is the legitimate father of all moral flaws and behavioral defects. A man cannot achieve the full virtues of manhood while being fearful, nor can a woman attain the full virtues of womanhood while being afraid - regardless of the degree or form of fear. Perfection lies in being free from fear.
An individual cannot be liberated from all forms of inherited fear except through knowledge - knowledge of the minutiae of the natural environment in which one has lived and continues to live. This environment has been a direct cause for the regimenting of fear deep within the self. Fear is ignorance, and ignorance is only combated with knowledge. For this reason, it is essential to provide individuals with a complete and accurate understanding of their relationship with society and the universe, which is what we have been for some time.
