Reward and Punishment

Q: I have several questions: Is man neither rewarded nor punished for his actions in this world, since he has no free choice over his actions? Aren’t the Creator’s decisions and actions in the spiritual world influenced by man’s desires? Are our desires the only ones that influence our world? Are man’s desires his essence?

A: The essence of man is his will.

1. Man’s desires do not influence the Creator.
2. Only the Creator decides what to do with man.

a) Man is neither rewarded nor punished for his actions in our world, because he is not free to do or not to do them.
b) Everything that happens in our world happens according to the Will of the Creator.

At first, man must act as if the Creator does not exist, and everything depends on him alone, meaning that he alone determines the outcome of things and not the Creator. But when the act is done and the result has been determined, he must then attribute everything to the Creator, as “There is none else beside Him.”