Q. Is it permissible for a Muslim man to marry a Christian or Jewish woman? What about a Hindu woman?
Iqbal, Bombay
A. It is permissible to marry Christian or Jewish women, without the need for them to convert to Islam either before or after the marriage. However, such a marriage is not advisable. As for marrying a woman who follows the Hindu religion, this is not permissible in Islam.
Man’s free choice
Q. People often discuss whether we really have much choice in what we do in this life, considering that God has already fixed what happens and what we do. Someone says that since God already knows what we do in advance of our doing it, then this means that we are designed to do exactly what we will do in real life. As such, we do not have a choice. It is by God’s design that someone is a criminal or a righteous person. As such, how could anyone be responsible for what they do when they have no power over it. Please comment.
M. Ahmad
A. The confusion in this issue comes from the fact that people consider God’s knowledge of future events synonymous with pre-determination. There is wide difference between the two. God’s knowledge relies on the fact that He has created everything and set the laws governing the universe. But this does not mean that He decides what people will do in a given situation. It is they who make the choice.
Because we are subject to our own world and our thinking is limited to it, we can only give examples that relate to our own experience. Suppose you have a friend whom you have known for a long while, and with whom you have been in a wide range of situations. You know that he has a strong aversion to having his clothes wet by rain. Suppose that before leaving you one day, he says that he will be walking home, a walk that would take him 30 minutes. Suppose also that ten minutes after his departure, it started to rain heavily. If you know that there are no buses on his route, you may say with a high degree of probability that your friend will seek shelter somewhere until the rain stops. You make your prediction on the basis of knowledge gained from experience.
If you see your friend the following day, you expect that he would tell you that he sought shelter under a tree or in the entrance of a building.
Your knowledge of what he would be doing in the case of heavy rain has not dictated his action. No one could accuse you of programming him to seek shelter.
The same applies to God’s will and knowledge. God knows how everyone and everything will react in every situation, and knows the factors that affect any situation or condition. His knowledge is not increased or decreased as a result of any event.
If you take the previous example, your friend may decide at the time to brave the rain and walk on, because he has something to attend to at home within a short period. You might have not known this. When you learn the next day that he did not stop to seek shelter you will be very surprised. There is here a factor influencing his decision but unknown to you. To God, no such factor exists, because He knows all. But His knowledge does not determine our actions. It is we who make them and every one of us knows this because we choose what to do.
The point to remember is that it is God’s will to give us free choice and freedom of action. His will is done and we know it. It is only people who wish to escape responsibility for their actions that try to put the blame on God and say that He has determined our actions and that we have no escape. This is absolutely wrong.