Maulana Wahiduddin Khan | The Sunday Guardian | Jan 9, 2022
Despite its mind-boggling vastness and countless components, we find it entirely ordered by determinism. From the microcosm to the macrocosm, the whole universe functions under tight discipline, that is, according to natural laws. As a result, it has a highly predictable character. It is because of this predictability that we have been able to develop science and technology with precision. The absence of determinism in the human world is the reason for the social sciences not having the exactitude of the physical sciences. For example, while the solar system has but a single definition, political science has almost a dozen definitions.
This difference between our world and the rest of the universe leads us to believe that the scheme of things devised by the Creator differs from the one to the other. While the functioning of the cosmos is marked by determinism, the Creator’s scheme for the human world places man in a state of complete freedom. There is deep wisdom in this difference. If we observe the physical world, we realize that the phenomenon of intellectual development is absent from it. In other words, it has remained the same for millions of years. But, in the human world, there are constant challenges, and it is this kind of challenging environment that leads to progress and development. Without experiencing challenges, there can be no creative thinking or intellectual development.