Understanding Free Will from the perspectives of Philosophy, Neuroscience, and Islam

The concept of free will is a subject of debate for centuries among philosophers, scientific community and religious scholars. Some people say free will is not possible, while others say it is possible. Those who oppose the existence of free will, say how can free will be possible in a deterministic physical environment? Determinism is a principle that everything happening in the Cosmos, including human actions, depend upon cause-and-effect. Those who say it is possible, argue that free will is compatible with determinism and there is no logical conflict between the two. Therefore, Free will is possible. Currently, this problem is addressed by neuroscience in which it is claimed that there is a correlation between free will and brain function. The will of a person is dependent upon certain unconscious intentions taking place in the brain that result in human actions. They say, there is a build-up of activity in the brain that results in spontaneous voluntary movements (SVM). This neuroscience perspective of free will is closer to the ‘instinctive and common-sense’ perspective of philosophy. In addition, every religion in the world has a viewpoint as regards to free will. In this paper we have explained Islamic point of view about free will. All related issues have been discussed in this paper in order to reach to some new findings in this context.