2. If predestination is true, then how is it fair that some people are destined to die on another faith than Islam? How does this explain our freedom to choose what to believe?
This was a question that troubled me throughout the many years I was a practising Muslim and it never made sense.
The usual answer I got was:
"Allah knows but we don't know - therefore we are making our choices freely."But the fact we don't know doesn't mean we have free-will and still doesn't answer the question of how we could in fact behave any differently than the way were created to behave.
The creations of an all-knowing and all-powerful God (as described in Islam) can only ever be exactly what he made them to be. Their very creation, genes, mind and every tiny cell is all determined - their childhood, socialization, environment, and every tiny detail is all determined. The choices they make have been written and decided upon even before they were created by a God who knows everything.
The only way we could have freewill if God was to have created us without knowing what we would do, without knowing how we would turn out. But how can a God who knows every tiny detail and has absolute and complete power, not know how his creation will turn out - not know how they will behave - or not have planned it so?