Freedom of will

Just as existence of God and the life hereafter are the postulates of morality, so freedom of will too has basic importance for moral actions. In order to declare a person responsible for his actions and in order to make him deserving of the reward or punishment for his doings, it’s essential that he should be believed to be free in the performance if his actions. Moral freedom means that a person has two or more alternatives before him out of which he is capable of making, and in most of the cases does make a choice of the alternatives and then behaves accordingly. If a person has only one way of action before him or out of the many ways he is compelled to adopt only one particular way, we can’t pass a moral judgment on that person or his behavior. Actions of animals are not moral actions on that account. Similarly, the actions performed by an insane person or by one who is completely swayed by some emotions are not moral actions. Only those actions are declared to be morally good or bad which have been consciously, deliberately and freely chosen. There are three kinds of determinism based on free-will. But, I want to specially write about the controversy between the Jabarites and qadarites.
The sect of jabarites in Muslim theology specially was the upholders of this kind of determinism; it asserts that God is powerful over everything; they argued that nothing can happen against His will. Not even a leaf can move without His decree. The sovereignty of the God extends to he actions of men as it extends to everything else. On the contrary, qadarites or free-willists uphold freedom of man and justifiability of the moral judgment. Both sides have strong arguments in their favor, Thus I fail to pass a judgment of my own :P. I know we love to pass a moral judgment on people; it’s become a kind of habit as a nation. But, try exercising your freedom of will and look things from others’ point of view. (Excerpts from elements of philosophy)