Iranian Persian Language and Literature Promotion Society Research on Mystical Literature HTTPS://JP 15 1 2021 08 23 Determinism and Free Will from the Point of View of Theology and Mysticism Determinism and Free Will from the Point of View of Theology and Mysticism 81 98 25009 10.22108/jpll.2020.123918.1505 FA Ali Salmani PhD Candidate, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran Taghi Poornamdarian Professor of Persian Language and Literature, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran Journal Article 2020 07 12 Determinism and free will have always been  among the most important and controversial issues of ideology of Muslims. They have historically provoked various disputes and judgments among the thinkers of theology, philosophy, and mysticism. The theological theory of the Mu'tazilites and Ash'arites on this subject comes to the fore by acknowledging the issue of duality between the obligated man and God. However, each endeavor ultimately leads to a different answer to the question of how the obligated man is related to God. By presupposing independence of Man from God and looking at them as two separate facts, theologians have tried to examine the issue of determinism and free will in a way that they do not face any problems in justifying the discussion of obligation and punishment for deeds in addition to preserving both the appearances of narrative and rational arguments based on the refusal of reincarnation and unity of God and Man. By relying on their intuitive experience of their unity with the absolute existence of God in the position of nearness to the supererogatory (Nawafil), mystics have presented another presentation of the relationship between Man and God. For Islamic theologians, determinism and free will are reasonable additions to the two independent parties of God and the obligated human being, whose duality is assumed to be certain, while mystics consider creatures as a ray of God’s absolute existence according to their intuitive experience of the way of relation between God and Man. They deny realization of a reasonable addition in the light of such a unity since a reasonable addition can be only imagined between two separate and independent issues, while they do not believe in the realization of such independence on both sides of the relationship between God and Man according to their theory of existence. Mystics examine the issue of determinism and free will in the light of the unity of God and slavery to Him, which is revealed in nearness to the supererogatory. In this view, which arises from a chimerical experience, they speak of a kind of determination that occurs due to separation from their own human attributes and annihilation in God considering the position of nearness to the supererogatory. To achieve this position, such annihilation and appearance of God’s attributes inside their hearts are required. Here, mystics deny their free will as an attribute of human nature. Moreover, they introduce their own free will as a description of God’s attributes that is manifested in them considering appearance of God’s names in their hearts and the fact that their creation has been reflected in the form of truth. Determinism and free will have always been  among the most important and controversial issues of ideology of Muslims. They have historically provoked various disputes and judgments among the thinkers of theology, philosophy, and mysticism. The theological theory of the Mu'tazilites and Ash'arites on this subject comes to the fore by acknowledging the issue of duality between the obligated man and God. However, each endeavor ultimately leads to a different answer to the question of how the obligated man is related to God. By presupposing independence of Man from God and looking at them as two separate facts, theologians have tried to examine the issue of determinism and free will in a way that they do not face any problems in justifying the discussion of obligation and punishment for deeds in addition to preserving both the appearances of narrative and rational arguments based on the refusal of reincarnation and unity of God and Man. By relying on their intuitive experience of their unity with the absolute existence of God in the position of nearness to the supererogatory (Nawafil), mystics have presented another presentation of the relationship between Man and God. For Islamic theologians, determinism and free will are reasonable additions to the two independent parties of God and the obligated human being, whose duality is assumed to be certain, while mystics consider creatures as a ray of God’s absolute existence according to their intuitive experience of the way of relation between God and Man. They deny realization of a reasonable addition in the light of such a unity since a reasonable addition can be only imagined between two separate and independent issues, while they do not believe in the realization of such independence on both sides of the relationship between God and Man according to their theory of existence. Mystics examine the issue of determinism and free will in the light of the unity of God and slavery to Him, which is revealed in nearness to the supererogatory. In this view, which arises from a chimerical experience, they speak of a kind of determination that occurs due to separation from their own human attributes and annihilation in God considering the position of nearness to the supererogatory. To achieve this position, such annihilation and appearance of God’s attributes inside their hearts are required. Here, mystics deny their free will as an attribute of human nature. Moreover, they introduce their own free will as a description of God’s attributes that is manifested in them considering appearance of God’s names in their hearts and the fact that their creation has been reflected in the form of truth. https://jpll.ui.ac.ir/article_25009_5e779fc79791480180e0b0c34f775dd6.pdf