A paper presented to the Holy Qurʾan Conference in Saihat / the Qurʾan Forum
The human being's sense of the need for the value of freedom is an innate feeling; it is an unruly feeling deposited within the human being, and it has its own drive that surges toward emancipation from the shackles and burdens that fetter it in all walks of life,
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Therefore the study of freedom, for this human being who feels this unruly feeling and who is aware of this great need, is considered a study of great importance. For that reason the new laws, systems and programs that seek to change the human being's reality came to challenge a reality that pays no heed to this feeling and does not regulate its direction and course, whether by going too far or by falling short. Reformers throughout the bygone history of humanity have usually wagered on a basic truth, namely that they possess the program that guarantees this human being the satisfaction of this need for liberation by the best means. This history, which expresses this great truth, is not confined to one particular intellectual type among the types of human thought; rather it is so beginning with the heavenly religions at the hands of the prophets, passing through the successors (awsiyaʾ), and ending with the revolutions and renaissance movements in ancient, medieval and modern times. Talk of freedom still finds, in all the various political, cultural and public-discourse circles, outstretched palms, craning necks and yearning hearts, seeking to realize the ideal conception and the most upright regulator of the spirit of liberation in the human being. Whenever a human being suffers the injustice of his fellow human being, he longs for a glimmer of freedom, and whenever he obtains a faint light of it, he yearns for more—all of that because it is created along with the human being, yet it was lost after his birth.
When freedom is connected with society, this means that it has a vitality connected with all the joints of life, since it is a constant act of each and every individual in society; and this calls for clarity of vision in defining its notional personality, by defining its essence, its paths and its movement. The Holy Qurʾan has come to give us a penetrating insight that lays the foundation for the movement of freedom and its interactions in human society, through a fabric of direct and indirect verses, given that the Holy Qurʾan (one part of it confirms another). So every command or prohibition in any aspect of life in the Holy Qurʾan only complements the other, differing legislations, and all those legislations and ramifications are in harmony with the verses that lay the foundation of the general rules, in a (confirmatory) process; through understanding them and linking them to one another, one can come out with a clear and integrated vision. This is what we will follow in our reading of the blessed Qurʾanic text, to form a conception of the freedom of society, in its religious aspect in particular.
Absolute Freedom
It is extremely dangerous for the claims of freedom to be left to themselves, without controls and without a program that charts their path and defines their courses; for leaving them so will generate for us a state of absolute permissiveness: (permissiveness toward honor), (permissiveness toward property), (permissiveness toward ideas), (permissiveness toward slaughter). We can discern this state in the act of (israf, excess, in its Qurʾanic concept), in its general content that covers all walks of life, since israf is a state of overindulgence in human needs, and it is a practical application of the movement of absolute freedom in society connected with the human being's desires and wishes. It has come in the following verses:
1/ In eating, drinking and the outward aspects of life.
“O Children of Adam! Put on your adornment on every occasion of prayer, and eat and drink, but do not waste (la tusrifu); indeed, He does not like the wasteful (al-musrifin).” (Qurʾan 7:31).
2/ In killing.
“Do not kill a soul [whose life] Allah has made inviolable, except with due cause, and whoever is killed wrongfully, We have certainly given his heir an authority. But let him not commit any excess (fa-la yusrif) in killing [the murderer], for he has been assisted [by law].” (Qurʾan 17:33).
3/ In rule and administration.
“But none believed in Moses except some youths from among his people, for the fear of Pharaoh and his elite that he would persecute them. For Pharaoh was indeed a tyrant in the land, and indeed he was an unrestrained [despot] (min al-musrifin).” (Qurʾan 10:83).
4/ In indifference regarding ideas.
“Certainly Joseph brought you manifest proofs earlier, but you continued to remain in doubt concerning what he had brought you. When he died, you said, ‘‘Allah will never send any apostle after him.’’ That is how Allah leads astray those who are unrestrained (musrif) and skeptical.” (Qurʾan 40:34).
5/ In sex and deviance.
“Indeed you come to men with desire instead of women! Indeed, you are a profligate (musrifun) lot.” (Qurʾan 7:81).
From the sum of these noble Qurʾanic verses it becomes clear to us that this state of absolute permissiveness causes the corruption of the general order of the human being on the individual and social levels. This truth is an intuitively felt truth, for it is not possible for every person to be given the absolute right to act with whatever he wishes, in whatever he wishes, wherever he wishes and whenever he wishes, in the name of exercising freedom, because this principle is a clear cancellation of the freedoms of others, since absolute action will inevitably collide with the freedoms and rights of others, given that the individual lives within society and interacts with it. This is from the standpoint of respecting the social order, as in (killing), (injustice) and (sexual assault). From another standpoint, giving free rein to freedom has an effect on the individual himself even if he is not in a social setting, as is the case in (eating and drinking) and (doubt and suspicion).
The Suppression of Freedom
The same is the case when the human being seeks to suppress the feeling of liberation and emancipation from shackles, seeking to restrict, pressure and stifle human action in all walks of life, in all its forms and manifestations and at all its levels: this has negative effects that would narrow for the human being the space of living that Allah the Exalted has granted him, and would ruin his feelings and desires with which Allah the Exalted has endowed him. We can derive this state from the Holy Qurʾan in the state of (prohibition) that the human being has practiced upon himself voluntarily and by his own reasoning, since it is a state of constraining the self, involving the act of suppression and the restriction of the innate desires created along with the human being. The Exalted says:
1/ “Say, ‘Who has forbidden the adornment of Allah which He has brought forth for His servants, and the good things of [His] provision?’ Say, ‘These are for the faithful in the life of this world, and exclusively for them on the Day of Resurrection.’ Thus do We elaborate the signs for a people who have knowledge.” (Qurʾan 7:32).
2/ “They are certainly losers who slay their children foolishly without knowledge, and forbid what Allah has provided them, fabricating a lie against Allah. Certainly, they have gone astray and are not guided.” (Qurʾan 6:140).
3/ “O you who have faith! Do not prohibit the good things that Allah has made lawful to you, and do not transgress. Indeed Allah does not like the transgressors.” (Qurʾan 5:87).
For when the Creator, Majestic and Exalted is He, created the human being and created with him the feeling of freedom, He gave him at the same time what fulfills this need; so the human being cannot forbid to himself those permissible things and suppress that feeling.
The basic idea from which the Holy Qurʾan proceeds, and which it fixes in minds as a principle for understanding any subsequent idea in the field of freedom, is that it is not in the interest of the human being as an individual, nor in the interest of his society, to live in unruliness and the exercise of absolute freedom; nor, on the other hand, may he suppress what Allah the Exalted has bestowed upon him. The Holy Qurʾan thereby lays the foundation for the idea of moderation in the conduct of life, as the Exalted said, expressing the economic state:
“Those who are neither wasteful nor tightfisted when spending, but balanced between these [two extremes].” (Qurʾan 25:67).
For the spirit of the principle of freedom is the movement of moderation in life, which does justice to others and deals with things in view of their rights and needs, as the Almighty says regarding dealing with blessings:
“It is He who produces gardens trellised and without trellises, and palm-trees and crops of diverse produce, olives and pomegranates, similar and dissimilar. Eat of its fruits when it fructifies, and give its due on the day of harvest, and do not be wasteful; indeed, He does not like the wasteful.” (Qurʾan 6:141).
The Free Society
The Holy Qurʾan has concerned itself with forming a free and dignified society; it placed the trait of freedom among the traits of the civilized and urbane society that Islam calls for establishing through the Greatest Messenger (s), and considered it one of the foundations of a living society. When that quality is formed in it, it creates in it the spirit of rising and progress. So for society to be living and to have a vibrant personality, it must respond to the call of Allah the Exalted and the Greatest Messenger (s), as the Exalted said:
“O you who have faith! Answer Allah and the Apostle when he summons you to that which will give you life. Know that Allah intervenes between a man and his heart and that toward Him you will be mustered.” (Qurʾan 8:24).
The life and advancement of society are formed by shaping it in accordance with the Qurʾanic call brought by the Messenger (s) in the following noble verse:
“those who follow the Apostle, the untaught prophet, whose mention they find written with them in the Torah and the Evangel, who bids them to do what is right and forbids them from what is wrong, makes lawful to them all the good things and forbids them from all vicious things, and relieves them of their burdens and the shackles that were upon them—those who believe in him, honour him, and help him and follow the light that has been sent down with him, they are the felicitous.” (Qurʾan 7:157).
The Greatest Messenger (s) calls for forming a society in which bidding what is right and forbidding what is wrong are practiced, and he makes lawful the good things and forbids all that is vicious. In addition to that, he “relieves them of their burdens and the shackles that were upon them” (Qurʾan 7:157), as an expression of the principle of freedom and its sovereignty in society, and of freeing it from the burdens and weights that stem from the soul and the self, and liberating it from the shackles and fetters that bind its freedom, upon which Allah created it. To discern the expression (al-aghlal, shackles), how they move and how they affect society, we read the saying of Allah the Exalted:
“when they are dragged [with] iron collars (al-aghlal) and chains around their necks” (Qurʾan 40:71).
Social shackles (aghlal) are like chains encircling people's necks, dragging them unwillingly and by force toward what they do not want. Freedom, then, is the removal of these shackles so that society may set out in the direction of the will that it chooses, according to the basis we have pointed to. It is the freedom that fulfills the desires of the self and does not cancel the freedoms of others, because (freedom in reality is embodied in safeguarding the inviolabilities (hurumat) of others. My freedom is real and actual when others respect my rights, and respect my personality and my dignity. Therefore Islam uses the word freedom (hurriyya) only a little; rather it uses the other side of freedom, which is the term hurma (inviolability) and its derivatives, so it says.. harim al-insan (the inviolable precinct of the human being), harim al-bayt (the inviolable precinct of the house), haram Allah (the Sanctuary of Allah), and hurmat al-iʿtidaʾ (the forbiddenness of aggression). Thus freedom is transformed, in the concept of Islam, into inviolability (hurma), because inviolability is what preserves freedom. When people preserve the inviolability of the house, the street, the school and the market, that means they are preserving the freedom of individuals; hence Mecca the Ennobled was called a secure sanctuary (haram), because the human being's freedom in it is guaranteed and no one can transgress the rights of others).
(/ al-Mujtamaʿ al-Islami, vol. 3 (al-Qiyada al-Siyasiyya fi al-Mujtamaʿ al-Islami), Grand Ayatollah Sayed Muhammad Taqi al-Modarresi, p. 86).
Freedom is among the most important civilizational traits of the rising Islamic society; therefore the Holy Qurʾan emphasized it and treated its problems connected with psychological burdens—namely, psychological ailments, the culture of stifling, and the whisperings of the self that call to servitude to the self and to lusts—and it treated the problems of suppression practiced by the tyrants (tawaghit), and called for disavowing the taghut, rejecting it and confronting it, as an obstacle to the movement and effectiveness of society; and the freedom of society in this sense, in which the two parts are considered:
The first: (psychological burdens), as the Commander of the Faithful (a) says: (Let not greed enslave you, when Allah has made you free), and he (a) said: (Do not be slaves of whims and cravings).
(Ghurar al-Hikam, vol. 2, 329/166 and p. 341/271).
And the second: (external shackles), which others impose upon it.
This is the distinction by which the call of the Holy Qurʾan is distinguished from the calls for liberation that arose in the human march of reform, embodied in the liberal movement against the enslavement of the Church and the ruling authorities, from which resulted the charters of human rights and the definitions of thinkers—as (Bertrand Russell), for example, says that (freedom in general must be defined as the absence of barriers to the realization of desires).
(Didd al-Istibdad / Fadil al-Saffar, p. 137).
(Thus the concept of freedom in Islam, even if it shares some of its instances with freedom among the democrats, is broader, more comprehensive and more complete than it, since it is not content with liberating the human being externally and physically and granting him his natural right to live in peace and his freedom of speech, assembly and travel, even if that be at the expense of the spirit, the soul and other things; rather it extends and rises to purifying him, making him pure spiritually and psychologically, and refining his conduct and character, and then it leaves him free in the outside world, also to exercise his will and choose his destiny freely and independently).
(Didd al-Istibdad / Fadil al-Saffar, p. 134).
Problems of Contemporary Reality
Despite this clarity in the Qurʾanic presentation of the principle of freedom and its importance for society, there are problems raised about how realistic this presentation is and how credible, especially in view of the situation the Islamic world is living in at present—practices that distort this principle and reinforce the notions of compulsion and imposition. However, we cannot take everything that may be raised seriously, because most of the claims stem from parties that are not fair to Islamic thought, and indeed from parties that may have other, non-intellectual aims (political or economic), especially if we read history, which informs us of the historical practices that bear witness to the injustice of the other and its ways of stifling freedoms. For example, (the Middle Ages are considered an example of what the European peoples suffered, who groaned under the yoke of terror and intellectual repression in the name of the Church, as King (Charlemagne) enacted a law decreeing the execution of everyone who refused to be Christianized—that is, to become a Christian—and when he led his harsh campaign against the Saxons and the Germans, he declared that his aim was only to Christianize them.
The Inquisition courts that the Church established in those ages have an evil reputation and a dark, gloomy record; they strove to impose the Church's opinions on people in the name of religion and to make an example of everyone who rejected or opposed anything of those opinions. They set up gallows and lit fires to burn the dissenters. It is estimated that those whom this tribunal punished numbered (300,000), of whom (32,000) were burned alive, among them the well-known natural scientist (Bruno), whom the Church resented because of his radical views, among which was his assertion of the plurality of worlds; it sentenced him to death. Likewise the famous natural scientist (Galileo) was punished with death, because he believed in the revolution of the Earth around the Sun.
Christianity had been imposed by iron and fire and by the means of torture and repression that the Roman state practiced as soon as Emperor Constantine entered Christianity, with the same savagery and cruelty that the Roman state had practiced before against the few Christians among its subjects who had embraced Christianity out of conviction and love. Nor were the means of repression and coercion confined to those who had not entered Christianity; rather they continued to target, ferociously, Christians themselves who had not entered the doctrine of the state and differed from it in some belief concerning the nature of Christ).
(Hurriyyat al-Muʿtaqad fi al-Islam wa al-Qanun, Amir Musa Bu Khamsin, al-Kalima magazine, issue 4, first year, Summer 1994 CE / 1415 AH.).
Therefore we say that the problems facing human practices on the face of the earth are general problems that include everyone; they are not specific to the practices of Muslims in their countries to the exclusion of others, especially when we know that the scene on the Islamic side is no greater than on the Western and Christian side in the practice of injustice, persecution and the enslavement of people. The fair researcher is the one who studies the phenomenon with detachment and objectivity. We cannot make many of the contemporary problems concerning freedom in Islamic society the pillar of the research and the practice of give-and-take, critique and confirmation.. Rather, we shed light on a problem that touches the intellectual deviation that has afflicted some of those affiliated with Islam through a fragmentary religious reading of the blessed Qurʾanic texts, in order to treat it in the light of the guidance of the Holy Qurʾan. While we set aside the biased problems raised by others, we do not deny the existence of a defect in the Islamic scene regarding dealing with the principle of freedom (religious freedom in particular) and understanding it within the contexts of the divine call to the true religion. There is indeed a defect that afflicted the rulers who ruled by fire and iron, and this is not related to our research; and another defect that afflicted the structure of religious thinking in reading the Qurʾanic texts, on the part of groups among the movements affiliated with Islam, which wrought havoc in the lands with constriction and killing against everyone who differs from their opinion religiously: killing the person of another religion as being an (unbeliever) and the one of a different school as being a (polytheist). Some groups, through numerous political experiences, have practiced compulsion and coercion upon society to apply what they see as religious rulings, even if it does not believe in them at all. This behavior has produced a state of distortion of religion and has established a negative public opinion about Islam in Western regions; (an opinion poll conducted by the international (Pew) Research Institute showed (that the majority of Americans and Europeans are worried about the growth of Islamic extremism around the world), considering (Islam the most violent of religions).
The poll covered 17 countries, among them 6 Muslim-majority countries, namely Lebanon, Indonesia, Morocco, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey, and 1,000 citizens from each country took part in it.
22% of the Americans polled expressed (a negative view of Islam), against 57% (who expressed a positive view). And 34% of the French polled stated (that they have a negative view), against (64% positive).
The majority of the Europeans and of the participants in the poll expressed (the feeling of a rise of Islamic identity in their countries), considering that (bad for their future), while 84% of Russians, 78% of Germans and 70% in each of Britain and the United States affirmed (their growing worry about Islamic extremism).
(al-Nabaʾ: a general cultural monthly magazine, issue 78, eleventh year, Rajab 1426 AH).
Perhaps knowing (religious freedom) through the Holy Qurʾan is the way to erase this dark image of Islam and Muslims in the eyes of others, so that this knowledge may contribute to building a clear, unambiguous culture of the dimensions and scope of this freedom.
Religious Freedom
Religious freedom is that the individual has the right to choose the religion he believes in, without compulsion to follow one religion rather than another. Therefore the Holy Qurʾan negated compulsion in religion, as it said: “There is no compulsion in religion” (Qurʾan 2:256).
However, the Holy Qurʾan informs us that the true religion that has come from the Truth is (Islam)—the Holy Qurʾan has called for adopting the Islamic creed and for the worship of Allah the Exalted as the purpose of creation—and that the result of adopting Islam as a religion is success in this world and the Hereafter, and that rejecting the religion of Islam is the manifest loss. The following noble verses spoke of these facts:
“Indeed, with Allah religion is Islam, and those who were given the Book did not differ except after knowledge had come to them, out of envy among themselves. And whoever denies Allah’s signs [should know that] Allah is swift at reckoning.” (Qurʾan 3:19).
“Should anyone follow a religion other than Islam, it shall never be accepted from him, and he will be among the losers in the Hereafter.” (Qurʾan 3:85).
“I did not create the jinn and the humans except that they may worship Me.” (Qurʾan 51:56).
• How, then, can we understand this orientation toward Islam as the true religion, as against the principle of religious freedom of choice?
We answer this question by putting our finger on the causes of the deviation that afflicted some in understanding (the truthfulness of Islam), which led them to practices contrary to the principle of freedom. It seems that the reason for taking this course is the confusion between the concept of (conveying and calling) and the concept of (guidance)..
Conveying is the responsibility of the Muslim, and it is a means of reaching guidance, which is entering the true religion.
Guidance is an exclusively divine matter, in which no one may interfere.
Therefore some have engaged in practices that are not their business and appointed themselves agents on behalf of Allah the Exalted in guiding people; they declared unbelievers everyone who does not respond to their way and their understanding of religion, and consequently proceeded to inflict punishment on all of these, by issuing fatwas of killing or of coercion into accepting what they believe to be the truth. Indeed, some of them held that the verses of fighting in the Holy Qurʾan are the governing verses in the matter of dealing with the other who differs religiously and doctrinally, and that they abrogate the verse “There is no compulsion in religion” (Qurʾan 2:256) and other verses that call for peace and gentleness.
(See the book (al-Hurriyyat al-ʿAmma fi al-Dawla al-Islamiyya) by Shaykh Rashid al-Ghannushi, Center for Arab Unity Studies. 1st ed., 1993 CE.)
So when we distinguish between the Muslim's responsibility (of the Message), which is conveying the Message through Qurʾanic means, and the exclusively divine matter, which is guidance and what accompanies it of (punishment and reward), we will undoubtedly arrive at a clear vision that balances belief in the Message of Islam as the true religion with the religious freedom that society ought to exercise.
The Responsibility of Conveying
Because the religion of Islam is the true religion, and so the Muslim has believed in it, Allah the Exalted has charged him with performing a role of the Message toward this religion: to call to the religion and convey the Message to the rest of the people, so that they may enter into the mercy of Allah the Exalted, as the Almighty said:
“such as deliver the messages of Allah and fear Him, and fear no one except Allah, and Allah suffices as reckoner.” (Qurʾan 33:39).
It is natural that when a person knows the truth and the good, he calls people to it and directs advice to them to follow its method and trace its footsteps, especially if it has consequences in this world and in the other, eternal life. This call is to lift the veils of ignorance and heedlessness from the human being's mind, so that it may bring him to the path of guidance which he has come to know from the Truth, Majestic and Exalted is He. The Exalted says:
“I communicate to you the messages of my Lord, and I am your well-wisher, and I know from Allah what you do not know.” (Qurʾan 7:62).
However, this responsibility of the Message placed on the shoulders of the believer has its mechanisms, likewise derived from the guidance of the Holy Qurʾan, so that conveying the truth is through the means of truth, not through another means incompatible with the truth: namely, calling in the wise manner that observes what circumstances require and puts everything in its place, and uses admonition through the word to reach conviction in the religion. He says, mighty is the Speaker:
“Invite to the way of your Lord with wisdom and good advice and dispute with them in a manner that is best. Indeed your Lord knows best those who stray from His way, and He knows best those who are guided.” (Qurʾan 16:125).
Even if the believer faces difficulties and aversion from others on the way of conveying the Message, he ought not to overstep the limits of his responsibility of conveying, as the Exalted says:
“But if they turn their backs [on you], your duty is only to communicate in clear terms.” (Qurʾan 16:82).
And He, Majestic is His Majesty, said:
“If they argue with you, say, ‘I have submitted my will to Allah, and [so has] he who follows me.’ And say to those who were given the Book and the uninstructed ones, ‘Do you submit?’ If they submit, they will certainly be guided; but if they turn away, then your duty is only to communicate, and Allah watches His servants.” (Qurʾan 3:20).
Guidance Is a Divine Matter
The human being conveys the Message and paves the way before people through clarification and illumination; then comes the other person's choice to accept this call or reject it. If he accepts it, he has entered the light of guidance, and if he rejects it, he has strayed from the right way. Guidance is a divine matter that Allah the Exalted grants to whoever believes in the clear proofs, as Allah the Exalted says:
“It is not up to you to guide them; rather, it is Allah who guides whomever He wishes. Whatever wealth you spend, it is for your own benefit, as you do not spend but to seek Allah’s pleasure, and whatever wealth you spend will be repaid to you in full and you will not be wronged.” (Qurʾan 2:272).
For whoever strives for guidance and listens to the argument in order to adopt it, that is the one who is guided; so [those] “who listen to the word [of Allah] and follow the best [interpretation] of it. They are the ones whom Allah has guided, and it is they who possess intellect.” (Qurʾan 39:18).
Affirming that guidance is from Allah the Exalted and that the human being's responsibility is conveying, with no room in it for constraint or coercion, the Exalted says:
“So admonish—for you are only an admonisher, and not a taskmaster over them” (Qurʾan 88:21–22), and He, exalted is His status, said: “Have you seen him who has taken his desire to be his god? Is it your duty to watch over him?” (Qurʾan 25:43). And the Exalted said: “There is no compulsion in religion: rectitude has become distinct from error. So one who disavows fake deities and has faith in Allah has held fast to the firmest handle for which there is no breaking; and Allah is all-hearing, all-knowing.” (Qurʾan 2:256).
Moreover, compulsion is inconceivable in bringing about faith and entering religion, because guidance is among the exclusive domains of the mind and the heart. In this way the verses of the Wise Reminder have in general come to address the human being's convictions and mind in order to reach the light of guidance. As for the act of compulsion, it is a practice concerned with form and appearance; forcing a person to believe in some idea or creed against his will has no connection with the mind and the heart, so everything he utters or practices after that will not go beyond being a form without content. It is not possible to bring a person to the state of guidance, so that he accepts religion, by compelling him to adopt a creed that is not of his choosing and in which he does not believe in his heart. Therefore the negation of compulsion in the verse “There is no compulsion in religion” (Qurʾan 2:256) may be looking at this matter, so that the negation in the blessed verse is a negation of the genus (nafy al-jins), meaning that it does not come about in external reality at all, because guidance to religion is from Allah the Exalted and its place is the heart, and it is not among the exclusive domains of human beings.
(Because guidance is from Allah the Exalted, and it is His doing and His grace, the Messenger's duty is only to convey, because he (s) does not guide whom he loves, but Allah guides whom He wishes, as Allah the Exalted said: “You cannot guide whomever you wish, but [it is] Allah [who] guides whomever He wishes, and He knows best those who are guided.” (Qurʾan 28:56).
(After completing His conclusive argument against all His creation, and after providing the opportunity of guidance to people equally, Allah guides whom He wishes, and not all human beings. (He guides only the one who takes a way to his Lord, and illuminates the heart of the one who submits his face to Allah, responds to the call of His messengers, and believes with his heart). Allah the Exalted said: “Say, ‘To Allah belongs the conclusive argument. Had He wished, He would have surely guided you all.’” (Qurʾan 6:149). (al-Tashriʿ al-Islami, vol. 5, Grand Ayatollah Sayed Muhammad Taqi al-Modarresi, p. 21).
Thus the caller ought to know the limits of his responsibility, which is conveying the Message. (Then he does not claim that guiding people is incumbent upon him). For Allah addresses His Messenger (s) and says to him: “It is not up to you to guide them; rather, it is Allah who guides whomever He wishes. Whatever wealth you spend, it is for your own benefit, as you do not spend but to seek Allah’s pleasure, and whatever wealth you spend will be repaid to you in full and you will not be wronged.” (Qurʾan 2:272).
And because guidance is the guidance of Allah, those who make themselves the criterion of guidance, and claim that whoever follows them or follows their religion is the one who is guided, are in far error. Allah the Exalted said: “And [they say,] ‘Do not believe anyone except him who follows your religion.’ Say, ‘Indeed [true] guidance is the guidance of Allah.’ [They also say.] ‘[Do not believe] that anyone may be given the like of what you were given, or that he may argue with you before your Lord.’ Say, ‘Indeed all grace is in Allah’s hand; He grants it to whomever He wishes, and Allah is all-bounteous, all-knowing.” (Qurʾan 3:73). (al-Tashriʿ al-Islami, vol. 5, Grand Ayatollah Sayed Muhammad Taqi al-Modarresi, p. 20)
Religious Freedom Does Not Mean Validation
It remains that the belief that the human being has freedom in choosing his religion, or in his practical commitment to the teachings of religion, does not mean deeming his view correct. For Allah the Exalted created people equal in intellect, hearing and sight, gave them the choice, and made clear to them the path of truth and the path of misguidance, as the Almighty said:
“Indeed We created man from the drop of a mixed fluid so that We may put him to test, so We endowed with hearing and sight. Indeed We have guided him to the way, be he grateful or ungrateful.” (Qurʾan 76:2–3).
And the Exalted said: “and shown him the two paths [of good and evil]?” (Qurʾan 90:10).
Rather, Allah the Exalted has cast the conclusive argument—“Say, ‘To Allah belongs the conclusive argument. Had He wished, He would have surely guided you all.’” (Qurʾan 6:149)—by creating the signs and cosmic indications that point to Him, the Exalted, with all they contain of the secrets of creation, wondrous making and wisdom in management; then He gave the human being the tools and means through which he can be guided by these cosmic phenomena, as has come in Surat al-Shams:
“By the sun and her forenoon splendour, (1) by the moon when he follows her, (2) by the day when it reveals her, (3) by the night when it covers her, (4) by the sky and Him who built it, (5) by the earth and Him who spread it, (6) by the soul and Him who fashioned it, (7) and inspired it with [discernment between] its virtues and vices: (8) one who purifies it is felicitous, (9) and one who betrays it fails. (10)” (Qurʾan 91:1–10).
After all of that, he is left to his choice, and he bears its consequences. The Exalted says:
“Say, ‘O mankind! The truth has already come to you from your Lord. Whoever is guided, is guided only for [the good of] his own soul, and whoever goes astray, goes astray only to its detriment, and it is not my business to watch over you.’” (Qurʾan 10:108).
