Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
2.IN THE LIGHT OF THE QUR’AN:
Turning to the Holy Qur’an, we find
that the different requirements affirmed in the foregoing with regard to the
realisation of the moral ideal are contained explicitly in the guidance it
offers. It says:
1.The world is not eternal but has been
created by God:
“To Him is due the primal origin of the heavens and
the earth: when He decrees a matter, He says to it: ‘Be’, and it is.” (2:117).
He (i.e., Prophet Abraham) said: ‘Nay, your Lord is
the Lord of the heavens and the earth, He Who brought them into existence: and
I am a witness to this (truth).” (21:56).
“Allah originates the creation (—nothing existing of
its own accord or fortuitously) …” (30:11).[1]
2.The world has been created by the
All-Wise, All-Powerful, All-Controlling God with exquisite Plan and Design:
“Blessed is He Who sent down the Criterion to His
Servant (Muhammad), that he may be unto all nations a Warner—
He to Whom belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth: no son has He
begotten, nor has He a partner in His dominion: It is He Who created every
thing, and ordained for it a measure (establishing thereby exquisite Plan and Design).”
(25:1-2).
“No want of proportion will you see in the Creation of
(Allah) Most Gracious. So turn your vision again. See you any flaw?” (67:3).
3.The world created for a serious and
definite Purpose:
“We created not the heavens, the earth, and all
between them, merely in (idle) sport: We created them not except for just ends,
But most of them do not understand.” (44:3839).
4.Creation of the world is for a moral
end—the world is a Moral Order:
“And Allah has created the heavens and the earth with
purpose (and for just ends) and in order that every soul may find the
recompense of what it has earned, and none of them be wronged.” (45:22).
“Blessed is He in Whose hands (i.e., possession) is
the Dominion, and He over all things has Power;—He Who created Death and Life,
that He may try which of you is best in deeds: and He is the Exalted in Might,
Oft-Forgiving.” (67:1-2).
5.The world is real:
“And it is He Who has created the heavens and the
earth in Truth (or, as real).” (6:73).
“Not falsely and without purpose did We create the
heavens and the earth and all between! That were the thought of the Rejectors
of Truth.” (38:27).
“Behold! in the constitution of the heavens and the
earth, and the alternation of the Day and the Night, there are indeed Signs for
those who possess and employ understanding. (They are those) who remember Allah
standing, sitting and lying on their sides, and contemplate the (wonders of)
Creation in the heavens and the earth (and say): ‘Our Lord! You have created
not all this falsely (and in vain).[2]
Glory be to You! Preserve us from the doom of the Fire’.” (3:191).
Also, we have been told:
“(O Man!) pursue not that of which you have no
knowledge (i.e., entertain no such opinion for which you have no sound reason
to believe to be true). Verily, the hearing and the sight and the heart—each of
these is accountable in respect of it.” (17:36).
It should be noted here that if the contents of sense
experience be unreal, the accountability of the senses would become
meaningless. Hence, the world, according to this verse also, is real.
6.The world is essentially Good and it
is the Best Possible World:
“… He Who has made every thing which He has created
Most Good …” (33:7).
7.Basis for struggle in the form of
pairs of conflicting forces functioning under the Law of Opposites,[3]
is ingrained in the very constitution of the world:
“And in all things We have created pairs (—pairs of opposites
and pairs of complimentaries—): that haply you may reflect (and obtain the
guidance involved).” (51:49).
8.Realisation of the Moral Ideal
enshrined in the very Destinyof the
world:
This point has been discussed and
affirmed in detail in the section on “Life-after-Death”. Here we may quote just
two verses:
The following verse refers to the success of the
forces of the Good and the defeat of the forces of Evil, both in the earthly
career of humanity and the Life Hereafter:
“Yes, to Allah belongs all that is in the heavens and
on the earth: so that He may recompense those who do evil according to their
deeds, and He may reward those who do good with what is best.” (53:31).
The following verse speaks specially of the final and
total triumph of the forces of the Good in the Life-Hereafter:
“Those who are god-fearing (i.e., cultivate and
practise righteousness out of respect for Divine Pleasure) shall be
(triumphant) above them (i.e., the Unbelievers in the principle of Submission
to God—or, the unrighteous) on the Day of the Resurrection.” (2:212).
g
[1] As to the words bada‘a, fatara, bada’a used for the act of creation
in the above verses: Bada‘a stands for the very primal beginning; Fatara
implies, like bada‘a, the creating of a thing out of nothing and after no
pre-existing similitude, or, the creation of primeval matter to which further
processes were applied later; Bada’a (without the ‘ain) denotes beginning the
process of creation. (Ref: Lane’s Arabic English Lexicon).
[2] Here the Hindu doctrine of Maya, which regards the whole universe
as an illusion, has been repudiated, affirming the reality of the world as we
perceive it by our senses.
[3] This Law has been discussed in detail in the Author’s forthcoming
book on the “Dynamics of Moral Revolution”.
Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
9. MAN POSSESSES FREE WILL:
Viewing the conflict and the urge for
moral betterment in human nature we are led to the conclusion that for
realising morality and the moral ideal it is essential that Man should be free.
For realising morality, he should be
free to choose between the two conflicting motives within his inner self, i.e.,
the motive of the fulfilment of Desire (command of nafs-al-ammarah) and the
motive of the fulfilment of Duty (behest of nafs-al-lawwamah).
For realising the moral ideal, he
should be free not only to choose between the above-mentioned conflicting
motives within his own self but also to struggle in the social situation for
transforming the world of human relations into a moral order in the face of the
conflict that rages there.
We are, therefore, confronted now with the
questions:
1.what is Freedom of Will?
2.how is Freedom of Will conceivable?
3.does the Holy Qur’an affirm Freedom
of Will?
1.What is Freedom of Will?
Freedom of Will consists in the
independence of the will of the moral agent from all internal restraint and
external constraint in the choice of motive in the situation of moral conflict.
2.How is Freedom of Will conceivable?
The question ‘how is Freedom
conceivable?’ can be answered in this way. If, in the act of Creation, “being”
(wajud) has been bestowed as an act of Grace on the shai’, i.e. the
aimed-at-Idea, and Personality & Freedom of Will have been conferred upon Man
as acts of Grace by the fiat of the Divine Will, the concept of necessity is
eliminated with reference to human will and freedom becomes conceivable as a
final and ultimate fact.
However, as emphasised earlier, the
proper attitude in response to the question: how is human Freedom of Will
possible?, is: somehow it is a fact; we may or may not be able to explain ‘how’
in the manner of exact sciences.[1]
Indeed, it is only the speculative consciousness that stumbles; while moral
consciousness affirms it as vehemently as the speculative consciousness
stumbles.
That Freedom of Will is a fact is
known to us intuitively. Indeed, it is deeply ingrained in our consciousness,
on account of which we insist on moral responsibility and believe in the
validity of moral approval and condemnation.
It may be emphasised that human
freedom is restricted to the choice of the motive and does not extend to the
consequence, which follows as necessity. It should, however never mean that the
consequence is necessarily against the yearning of the moral agent.
3. Does the Holy Qur’an affirm Freedom of Will?
It may be observed at the very outset
that the Holy Qur’an affirms the human Freedom of Will in clear terms. Its
basic statement in this connection is:
“We (God) did indeed offer the Trust to the heavens
and the earth and the mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid
thereof: but Man undertook it,[2]—he
[3]
is indeed very unjust (to himself in not fulfilling his responsibility in
respect thereof) and very ignorant (in respect of the evil consequences of not
fulfilling his responsibility),—(with the result) that Allah has to punish the
Hypocrites, men and women, and the Unbelievers (lit., polytheists), men and
women; and Allah turns in Mercy to the Believers, men and women: For Allah is
ever Forgiving, Merciful.” (30:72-73).
According to the Commentators of the
Holy Qur’an, “Trust” stands here for “moral responsibility, which is human
sense of answerableness for all acts of thought and conduct. Its first and
foremost pre-requisite is freedom of choice, which is the real function of a
human being as a moral agent. The ‘trust’ referred to is obviously the trust of
free choice or accountability.” (English Translation and Commentary of the Holy
Qur’an by Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi, p. 680, n. 136).
We may now quote other important
verses which clearly and directly affirm and proclaim the possession of freedom
of will by Man,—namely:
“Do what you will (i.e. act as you choose in
accordance with your free-will). Verily He (God) sees (clearly) all that you
do.” (41:40).
“We have shown him (i.e., Man) the Way (of Right and
Wrong); (now it rests on his will) whether to be grateful (by using the gift of
free-will in the service of Good) or ungrateful (by serving Evil through his
free-will).” (76:3).
“Say: The Truth is from your Lord; let him who will,
believe, and let him who will, reject it.”[4]
(18:29).
“That is the Day of Certainty. Whosoever therefore
wills, let him betake unto his Lord a resort.” (78:39).
“… a warning to humankind,—to any of you that chooses
(through his will) to go forward (towards Good) or to lag behind.” (74:36-37).
Man is, however, a created being. As
such he cannot be independent of his Creator in anything. Even free-will is not
possessed by him of his own right, unlike his Creator Who owns it in His own
right. Man’s freedom of will has been conferred on him by his Creator as an
element of Personality. Hence the human will functions as a ‘State within
State’.
In other words, Man’s limited freedom
functions within the absolute Freedom of the Creator’s Will. We will see later
in this discussion that the Creator’s Will is not, and can never be, capricious,
irrational, arbitrary and unjust, and does never interfere in the freedom of
human will. How the human free-will functions as free-will while remaining
within the Will of God?—this question relates to an ultimate fact which is
beyond the powers of human reason to comprehend fully.[5] But
logically it is valid, because, on the one hand, human reason demands that Man
must possess free-will in order to be a moral all being, and moral
consciousness affirms vehemently that he does possess free-will; and, on the
other hand, if there is a Creator of the cosmos—as He is there, His existence
being affirmed by reason and Revelation both—everything in the cosmos,
including human will and its freedom, must be encompassed by Him [6]
and cannot ever be conceivable as independent of Him.
It is this fact, and not the negation
of human freedom of will, that has been emphasised in the following verses:
“Nay, verily this (Qur’an) is an Admonition: so let
him who will (i.e., has the will to do so), heed it. But they shall not heed
except as Allah wills (in His infinite Wisdom and that in accordance with His
Universal Scheme): He is the Lord of Righteousness and the Lord of
Forgiveness.”[7]
(74:55-56).
“This is an Admonition: then whosoever (shall exert
his) will, may choose a way unto his Lord. But you will not except as Allah
wills [8]
(in His infinite Wisdom and in accordance with His Universal Scheme); for Allah
is full of Knowledge* and Wisdom.[9] He
will admit to His Mercy whom He will [10] (in
accordance with the requirements of His Gracious Nature and of the demands of
Absolute & Universal Divine Justice); but the wrongdoers,—for them He has
prepared a grievous Penalty (in accordancewith the misuse of their free-will).” (76:29-31).
*i.e., “His
supreme knowledge comprehends all conditions and circumstances”—a knowledge
which He employs for the benefit of mankind.
“Verily this
(i.e., the Qur’an) is no less. than a Message to (all) the Worlds (i.e., it is
universal)—unto whomsoever among you wills to go straight:[11] but
you shall not will except as Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds, wills[12].”
(81:27-29).
An important point to be noted here is that the expression
‘but you shall not will except as Allah wills’ is to be found in the Holy Qur’an
only in the three verses quoted above. Another important point to be noted is
that in all these verses, there is reference only to the acceptance of
Spiritual Truth—to Good and not to Evil. This is so, because Good and Good alone
has its source in God; and hence the pursuit of Good is not possible except
when there is identity between the human will for Good and the Divine Will.
Also, these verses mean that the acceptance of the Divine Faith can be possible
only for those who possess, as moral beings, the good will. And because the
will of Man cannot bear fruit without the assistance of the Divine Will—its
freedom being limited to the choice of the motive alone,—no one as a spiritual
being will receive the strength from the Divine Will to accept the True Faith
unless he possesses good-will already as a moral being.
Here we may take notice of a verse wherein Divine Will
has been mentioned with reference to the existence of evil. The verse is:“If’
Allah had willed (i.e., if it had been God’s Plan), they would not have taken
false gods.” (6:107). But this verse does not say that God assists evil. It
only says that, on the one hand, He has the power to eliminate evil, and that,
on the other hand, He does not interfere when the wrong-doers adopt evil
through their freewill. This point has been made clear emphatically in another
verse which reads: “And they say: if it had been the Will of (God) Most
Gracious, we would not have worshipped these (idols). They have no knowledge
thereof; they are only guessing.” (43:20).
As for the Divine Plan in permitting the existence of
evil, it relates to the provision of those conditions whereby alone can the
moral and spiritual struggle be pursued, which, in its turn, form’s the
foundation on which alone the evolution of human personality to greater and
greater heights is possible. More of it on some other occasion. (In this
connection see the author’s book on the Dynamics of Moral Revolution, to be
published shortly).
We said in the foregoing that God’s
Will is not, and can never be, capricious, irrational, arbitrary and unjust.
There are numerous verses in the Holy Qur’an which emphasise this fact vehemently.
For instance, the following:
“Verily Allah deals not unjustly with Man in anything.
It is (actually) Man that wrongs his own soul.” (10:44)*
This is a general statement which
covers the human life. As for the Day of Judgment specially—the Day of final
reward and punishment, the Holy Qur’an proclaims in unambiguous terms thus:
“Then, on that Day, not a soul will be wronged in the
least, and you shall but be repaid the meeds of your past Deeds.” (36:54).Cf. 21:47.
Having negated injustice on the part
of God, we may now quote the verse which affirms the law of Absolute Justice in
God’s dealings with man:
“Never will I (God) suffer to be lost the work of any
of you, whether male or female.” (3:195)
The Holy Qur’an affirms positively
that no action of God can ever be irrational and arbitrary. It says:
“Verily, my Lord (Allah) is on the Straight Path.”[13]
(11:56).
Further, the Holy Qur’an negates
capriciousness absolutely when it speaks of the Perfect Knowledge and Wisdom of
God on page after page. It proclaims:
“Verily Allah is Perfect in Knowledge and Perfect in
Wisdom.” (76:30).
Then, besides perfection in knowledge and wisdom, God is Rabb-ul-‘Alameen [14]
(the Cherisher of everything in the cosmos), alRahman [15]
(Most Gracious), al-Raheem [16]
(Most Merciful), al-Ra’uf [17]
(Full of Kindness), al-Wadud [18]
(Loving), al-Ghaffar [19]
(Most Forgiving), Al-Hafeez [20]
(the Protector). And He is even more than all that, because He is
Zul-Fadl-il-‘Azeem [21]
(the Lord of Abounding Grace) Who gives to man more than he deserves.
There are, however, certain verses in
the Holy Qur’an which, if read unintelligently and without full reference to
other connected verses, might give the wrong impression to the superficial
reader that God guides & leads astray, and rewards & punishes, human beings
arbitrarily and that, therefore, the human will enjoys no freedom whatsoever.
But if we understand the meanings and implications of all such verses properly,
we find that they nowhere negate the freedom of human will in the manner and in
the measure that it has been conferred on Man by God. We give herein below some
such typical verses, along with their proper connotation and explanation.
God says in the very early part of the Holy Qur’an:
“As to those who reject Faith
(deliberately), it is all the same to them. Whether you warn them or do not
warn them, they will not believe (because they have no will to believe). Allah
has set [22]
a seal on their hearts (by their being inured to disobedience and disbelief).
and on their hearing and on their eyes is a veil ; and unto them shall be a
torment mighty (as a just retribution for the misuse of the free-will conferred
on them by God).”* (2:6-7).
At another place, we have been told:
“If Allah so willed (i.e., if it had been the Divine
Plan), He could make you all one People.[23] But
He leaves straying [24]
whom He pleases, and He guides whom He pleases: and you shall certainly be called to account for all your actions.”(16:93).[25]
* Commenting on
this Verse, Abdullah Yusuf Ali says: “Kafara, Kufr, Kafir and other derivative
forms of the word, imply a deliberate rejection of Faith as opposed to a
mistaken idea of God or faith, which is not inconsistent with an earnest desire
to see the truth. Where there is such desire, the grace and mercy of God gives
the guidance. But that guidance is not efficacious, when it is deliberately
rejected, and the possibility of rejection follows from the grant of free-will.
The consequence of rejection is that the spiritual faculties become dead or
impervious to better influences.” (op. cit., p. 18, n. 30).
In understanding this verse, some
people fall into the error of believing that human beings adopt the right and
wrong paths, not on the basis of their free-will but because it is so willed
for them by God. This means pure Determinism. But when we read the above verse,
or any other verse of similar import, in conjunction with other relevant
verses, we find that to deduce determinism from such verses is absolutely
baseless.
The question is: Does God leave
straying anyone for no fault of his, and does He guide anyone for no merit on
his part? The Qur’anic answer is: No. It says clearly:
“And Allah will leave to stray the wrong-doers (in
consequence of their misuse of free-will); and Allah does what He wills (i.e.,
His Will is not in subjection to the will of any body).” (14:27).[26]
It means that, inspite of being
All-Powerful, God leaves straying only those who earn it through their
transgression, which is based on their free-will. Then we are told:
“And He (i.e., Allah) guides unto Himself (i.e., to
the Right Path) those who turn to Him in penitence.” (13:27).
Coming now to forgiveness and
punishment by God, We are told thus:
“And Allah’s is the dominion of the heavens and the
earth. He forgives whomsoever He will and torments whom He will; and Allah is
ever Forgiving, Merciful.” (48:14).[27]
Now God’s will to forgive is for the righteous: the
Believers:[28]
“Allah has promised those who believe and practice
righteousness that for them shall be forgiveness and a mighty reward.” (5:9).
“Oh you who believe! if you are careful of your duty
to Allah (of which righteousness is an integral part), He will bless you with a
Criterion (to judge between right and wrong), and will rid you of your evil
thoughts and deeds, and will forgive you. For Allah is the Lord of Abounding
Grace.” (8:29).
And God’s will to punish is for the
wrong-doers: i.e., those who commit Zulm, whether spiritually or morally:
“Verily the wrong-doers! for them is grieveous
Penalty.” (14:22).
Several other verses of similar import, consider also the verse:
“… nor is Allah going to
punish them while they ask forgiveness,” (8:33).
“… and unto the Rejectors of Truth shall be grievous
Penalty.” (2:104).
It means that reward and punishment
come to human beings on the basis of their own free-will and not because of any
arbitrary attitude on the part of God.
It is Man’s nature, however, that he
would like to avoid the responsibility for evil, unless his will has been
purified. That is why the idol-worshippers of Arabia said:
“… If it had been the Will of (God) Most Gracious, we
would not have worshipped these (idols).” (42:20).
But God refused to accept this plea,
because inspite the of the supremacy of Divine Will, He does not force the will
of anyone into any channel—i.e., He does not interfere with anyone’s free-will.
Hence, in the next part of the above-quoted verse, it has been said:
“They have no knowledge thereof (i.e., of the working
of the Divine Will in the universe); they are only guessing. Have We vouchsafed
to them any Book* before this, so that they are holding fast
thereto?” (43:21).
* Here the emphasis is on the truth that the knowledge of the ultimate
facts, of which the relation between God’s Will and the human will is one,
belongs only to God, Who alone can enlighten human beings about them; and as
for the human efforts, even of philosophers, to unveil
them through speculative endeavour, their resultant opinions can never
consistently claim the status of knowledge, and should, therefore, be
rightfully termed as conjectures.
In other words, they have neither
rational nor scriptural basis for the denial of their free-will and
responsibility.
The upshot of the entire foregoing
discussion is that the Holy Qur’an affirms freedom of will for Man in the moral
domain. It is limited freedom, of course,—namely, it is limited to the choice
of the motive and does not extend to the consequences of an action; but it is
freedom all the same. And the Divine Will, which is supreme in the universe,
sustains the human will but does not interfere in its working. The Divine
Knowledge and Power arranges the consequences in the earthly life of Man in
accordance with the Divine Plan, wherein the world is a Moral Order. Man shall,
however, be rewarded and punished on the Day of Judgment (or, Final
Accountability) in the measure and on the basis of his freedom of will. Says
the Holy Qur’an:
“On no soul does Allah place a burden except according
to its capacity. For it shall be the Good it earns (through the exercise of
free-will) and against it the evil it earns (— again through free-will) (—all
non-voluntary states of mind and actions being excluded from accountability).”*
(2:286).
* Mark that this
verse repudiates ‘original sin’, ‘universal redemption’ and determinism and it
proclaims that every individual must, through the exercise of freedom of will conferred on him by God, work out himself the possibilities of his spiritual success.
g
[1] The observation of the famous English philosopher, Locke, in
respect of intuitive judgments is worthy of note. He says: “But God has not
been so sparing to men to make them barely two-legged creatures and left it to
Aristotle to make them rational … He has given them a mind that can reason
without being instructed in syllogizing.” (Concerning Human Understanding, Book
4, Ch. 17).
Among the scholars of Moral Philosophy in the present time, Prof.
William Lillie judges the same problem thus: “… it is certainly the case that
direct or intuitive judgment plays a far larger part in normative sciences, and
especially in ethics, than it does in the physical descriptive sciences”, (An
Introduction to Ethics, p. 18).
[2] Speaking of the acceptance of the Trust by Man, Sir Muhammad lqbal
observes: “In the case of man in whom individuality deepens into personality,
opening up possibilities of wrong-doing, the sense of the tragedy of life
becomes much more acute. But the acceptance of self-hood as a form of life
involves the acceptance of all the imperfections that flow from the finitude of
selfhood. The Qur’an represents man as having accepted at his peril the trust
of personality which the heavens, the earth, and the mountains refused to
bear.” (Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, London 1934, pp. 121,
122).
[3] The word “he” actually stands here for those among humankind who
are unfaithful to the Trust.
[4] “Thus”, says Iqbal (op. cit., p. 151), “the element of guidance and
directive control in the ego’s activity clearly shows that the ego is a free,
personal causality. He shares in the life and freedom of the Ultimate Ego, who,
by permitting the emergence of a finite ego, capable of private initiative, has
limited this freedom of His own free-will.”
[5] What we can understand from the Holy Qur’an is that the human will
is sustained by the Divine Will and the Divine Will assists the human beings in
the light of the motive chosen by the human will, whether the motive is for
good or for evil.
[7] Commenting on this verse, A. Yusuf Ali says: “Righteousness as well
as Forgiveness have their source in God’s Will. Man’s righteousness has no
meaning except in relation to the Universal Will.” (The Holy Qur’an: English
Translation and Commentary, p. 1647, n. 5808).
[8] “Man in himself is weak; he must seek God’s Grace, without it he
can do nothing;with it he can do all.
For God knows all things. and His Wisdom comprehends the good of all.” (A.
Yusuf Ali, op. cit., p. 1660, n. 5861).
[9] i.e., “His Wisdom surpasses the insight of all finite beings”—a
wisdom used to rectify the evils of the deviations of human will.
[10] A. Yusuf Ali says: “That is, according to His Just and Wise Plan.
If the will is of the right, it obtains God’s Grace and Mercy. If the will of
man rejects God, man suffer Penalty,” (op. cit., p. 1661, n. 5862).
[11]“i.e., such alone can profit
by it. This repudiates the doctrine of Karma and determinism, in all its forms
and varieties.” (Maulana Abdul Majid Daryabadi, op. cit., p. 938, n. 167).
[12] Commenting on this verse, A. Yusuf Ali says: “Cf. 74:55-56. God is
the Cherisher of the Worlds, Lord of Grace and Mercy, and His guidance is open
to all who have the will to profit by it. But that will must be exercised in
conformity with God’s Will (verse 29). Such conformity is Islam. Verse 28
points to human free-will and responsibility; verse 29 to its limitations. Both extremes, viz: cast-iron
Determinism and the idea of Chaotic Free-will are condemned.” (op. cit., p.
1697, n. 5996).
[13] According to A. Yusuf Ali, “the standard of virtue and righteousness
is in the Will of God, the Universal Will that controls all things in goodness
and justice.” (op. cit., p. 539, n. 1552).
[22] It may be noted that the Holy Qur’an refers all actions to God,
because, according to it, nothing can occur outside His Knowledge and Power.
It is
also important to note that the sealing of the hearts, by God is not the cause
of disbelief but follows the deliberate rejection of Faith.
[23] For the Divine Wisdom in not willing it, refer to the author’s
forthcoming book on according the “Dynamics of Moral Revolution”.
[24] Some translators have wrongly translated the word as “leads
astray”. Commenting on this verse, Abdullah Yusuf Ali says: “God’s Will and
Plan, in allowing limited free-will to man, is, not to force man’s will, but to
give all guidance, and leave alone those who reject the guidance, in case they
should repent and come back into Grace. But in all cases, in so far as we are
given the choice, we shall be called to account for all our actions. ‘Leaving
to stray’ does not mean that we can do what we please. Our personal
responsibility remains.” (op. cit., p. 682, n. 2133).
[25] There are some other verses of similar import, e.g., 6:88; 14:4;
24:35; 74:31.
