Dave
Does Allah know the future?
Does Allah know all that will happen in the future?....or Allah also does not know what will happen in the future and hence is not omniscient (all knowing).
Farhan
If we say No, you will say Allah is not God.
if someone said Yes, then you will say why he tests us?
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so please proceed further.
Dave
Good...Farhan..u r intelligent boy...u can think and use ur brains...unlike most others who just blindly believe without using brains....
So u see Farhan there are logical inconsistencies in the concept of God...
Farhan
the answer is very simple.
No doubt Allah is All-knowing.
and he Does tests us.
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but Allah does NOT tests us bcoz he does NOT knows the future.
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Allah tests us for US,,not to KNOW that what we will do in certain test.
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take an example.
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Why does a teacher tests us? the test is for STUDENTS, so that they can make themselves strong, and KNOW that how much they know about certain subject. but certain teachers surely have 100% idea that which student will get how much marks,,he will pass or fail.
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majority of tests are to Purity ourselves.
some tests are to make us Strong
some tests are there to show us that at what level of Imaan we are.
some tests are to bring us close to Allah,when we are away from Allah.
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i hope that now the question, that WHY Allah tests us, has been answered.
Noor Ul Huda
future, present , past are not for ALLAH, the creator of ALL the ALL-KNOWER.
time, space, dimensions are created by the creator for the creation.
Aamir Mustafa
Lets Have a Different analogy ....
Have you ever done the computer programming ?? Have you ever written a Computer Code with different control statements ?? Like IF, THEN, ELSE and the different control SWITCHES ????
And the Principle of GIGO (Garbage In - Garbage Out) Well I will come to GIGO later.
Well to a large extent our lives are also like a Computer Program. A very large array of code where every situation is like IF THEN ELSE kind of Situations, Don't we have situations at every second of our life where we have to make choice between a number of options we have like
ITS RAINING OUTSIDE
Shall I go Out ??
You make a CHOICE YES or NO depending upon the kind of urgency you have!! Isn't it ?? You got wet (if you have nothing to protect you from rain) if you made a choice YES or you may choose to remain Dry if you choose NO. That doesn't mean that you were predestined got wet. It was your freewill which made you to choose between Wet & Dry ... both the things were destined for you but you shaped-up the future with your Freewill.
Same is the situation with our whole life Allah(S.W.T) had already destined everything for us or talking in terms of Analogy already Programmed our life. But the results of this Programming is on our free will. So, these IF THEN ELSE Statements are the free will heuristics and making a Choice out of Number of option is the TEST, how do you choose between a Number of Options??? Simply you have Certain Criterion ?? For us i.e, Muslim this Criterion is Quran as Allah says in Quran.
And who destined and [then] guided (Al-A'laa : 3)
And
Have We not made for him two eyes?
And a tongue and two lips?
And have shown him the two ways? (Al-Balad: 8-10)
Blessed is He who sent down the Criterion upon His Servant that he may be to the worlds a Warner - (Al-Furqaan: 1)
So the Quran is not only a Criterion for Muslims but for all humanity but not all humans make this Fair Choice in choosing their criterion, rather they choose the saying and words of those who have no knowledge or authority, they choose their whims and desires to quantify what is RIGHT and What is WRONG. The two ways are told to mankind time to time in revealed scriptures...
Now Come to GIGO (Garbage In - Garbage Out), well this simple principle of Computer programming explains many thing and if I would explain it with a single verse of Quran it will explain everything right from What is this Predestination (like both getting wet and Dry predestined) and why some people would go to Hell and some will find their Abode in Paradise. Allah Says In Quran.
What comes to you of good is from Allah , but what comes to you of evil, [O man], is from yourself. And We have sent you, [O Muhammad], to the people as a messenger, and sufficient is Allah as Witness. (An-Nisa :79)
Well what is this verse ?? Its nothing but GIGO!! Allah has destined everything which is good for you, but we human make some absurd (garbage) Choices which end up in Garbage results. Allah(S.W.T) is not to be blamed. Its only the free will, belief & acting on wrong Criterion which mess up things for us. Allah(S.W.T) has given us a Criterion if we would act on it we will not get what is Garbage but good which is Predestined by Allah for us.
Now come to third and final part of the Paradox namely Allah(S.W.T) knows everything that means he knows what Options we would choose or the How we will act based on our free will. Well answer to this Question is a rather complex and for believers the verse above (An-Nisa :79 ) will only suffice. But for those who are confused, let them then consider God to be an entity unlike Human beings, just like the verse of Surah Ikhlas say
Nor is there to Him any equivalent. (Al-Ikhlass:4)
So the Knowledge of Allah must not be like the Knowledge of we Humans, we humans mess up our thinking about Allah when we try to Imagine Allah with our human frame of Reference while it is clear that there is no Likeliness of Allah anywhere. he is one and Unique, never born and never to die. SO how does his knowledge is unlike the knowledge of we Humans. Let me Quote me another verse of Holy Quran to make you understand this,
Allah says
And they urge you to hasten the punishment. But Allah will never fail in His promise. And indeed, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of those which you count. (Al-Hajj: 47)
See the frame of Reference of Allah, what you say a Day i.e, 24 hours it is even lesser than a second for Allah, as Allah says a Day for Allah is Equivalent to a Thousand Years... take note of the plural years. It could be a thousand to any thousand years ... we do not know, But that is how the knowledge of Allah encompasses and a several thousand fold superior to what we have, he know every of our step that we take in a blink of eye, because for him (his frame of reference) that blink is even lesser than a part of thousands of that blink. So, the frame of reference of Allah is not like the frame of reference of we humans.
Scientifically this Concept is known as the Concept of Time Dilation derived from the theory of Relativity.
Meaning, According to Quran a Day in the frame of Reference of Allah is somewhat like thousand years , so that means what is for us is a Day for Allah it is = 1/thousand years, then Imagine what would be the length of a Minute or a second, its even lesser than you can imagine, That is why we say that we do not even raise our step and Allah knows it, because in Allah(S.W.T) ' s frame of reference it had already occurred while we have not even raised our step. That is why he also have the knowledge of our free Choices, which means Allah have forced nothing on us in terms of our destiny (or predestination) even though he is aware of what we do in Advance. And Allah is not responsible for all the bad choices we make.
As Allah says in Quran.
Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity. It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned. ........ (Al-Baqara: 286)
Its just like a Programmer knows everything about his Program (this is predestination) on what would be the results depending upon what a user choose. while Allah is superior in his Programming because he had programmed everything in our life good or bad and we only make our choices, but because the frame of reference of Allah is not like the frame of reference of we humans, he has the knowledge of what choices we will make beforehand.