The Illusion of Free Will
We are puppets acting out the divine script.
An excerpt from The Religion of God (Divine Love) by His Divine Eminence Gohar Shahi about the Primordial Time:
As God intended to create souls, he said, ‘Be’ and countless souls came into existence. By and beside God were the souls of the Prophets. In the second row were the souls of the Saints, and then in the third row were the souls of the faithful ones. They were followed by the souls of common folks. And then, at a distant row that fell beyond God’s sight, were created the souls of women who were followed by the animal, botanical and mineral souls respectively. Mineral souls were unable to move.
God further asked all souls if He was their creator. All souls affirmed in positive, and prostrated; even the souls of stones and trees prostrated to God. ‘The stars and the trees prostrated to God.’ (Chapter Rehman, the Koran).
Then, God created a modelled world and its luxuries in order to test and examine the souls. And God said, ‘Should anyone seek it, they may obtain it.’ Too many souls turned their back on God and leapt towards the modelled luxuries of the world. Therefore, they were declared hell-bound in the book of their fate. Then, God depicted the scene of the paradise, which was better than the latter and concerned itself with the servitude and obedience. Many souls leapt towards it, and the paradise was written in their fate. Too many souls were indecisive, hence, they were placed in between the Lord and the Devil. They were entangled between the two when they came in this world. Whoever influenced them first, they became theirs. Many souls fixed their eyes on the Divine Splendour. They desired none of the world or paradise. God loved them, and they loved God. Such souls for the sake of God, shunned the world, became recluse, and lived in jungles.
There is a point when the questions arise in a mind and if it is not answered correctly and accurately, then it creates a vacuum in your belief. Certain questions are directly pointing towards the nature of God, how human beings were created, and, of course, the options that we are believed to have had in the Primordial Time. We do not exactly remember if we made any choices; we don’t really remember even a single second of our pre-existential life.
We also believe that [now], whilst we are still living [here], when we do bad, we do so because our judgement is under the influence of the evil spirit in our body. But in the Primordial Time, there was no evil spirit inside or outside us. It is not easy to believe that without the presence of that evil spirit, the souls made an evil choice.
At that moment in time, all the souls gathered in the audience of God and God asked them, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They all said, ‘Yes you are.’ Then, the souls were shown two different scenarios; firstly, the luxuries of the world were shown to the souls. They were called to make a choice and a multitude of souls leapt towards the luxuries of the world; it was written in the book of their fate. After this, luxuries of paradise were shown, and again, it was asked by God to make a choice. A number of souls opted for the luxuries of the paradise.
[Someone asked me a question], ‘How was a pure soul which was under no bad influence able to make a wrong and evil choice?’
With the power of comprehension we have been allocated by God in our minds, we are unable to suss out how the souls which did not have any influence on them — either good or bad — made a wrong choice. This question had to be answered, and I answered.
I said, ‘You were under the divine influence. This is how God designed the world to be. You were made to make a choice; you made it.’
Sometimes I reluctantly answer questions. Sometimes, I think, I must answer the questions; I am left with no other choice but to answer. Had I remained silent on certain questions, it would have further deteriorated the belief in God in people’s minds.
This was a transcript of Younus AlGohar’s reply to a question from a viewer on YouTube. Younus AlGohar is the CEO of Messiah Foundation International. Read more of his work on his website. He also answers questions from viewers live on AlRa TV every day starting at 10:00 PM UK Time.
