Zoheir Ali Esmail

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. This is not an issue that is to be proven in a logical sense as it is a presupposition. Presuppositions are judged according to their coherency, consistency, explanatory power and their implications (for more on these criteria please refer to the field on analytic philosophy). As such to discuss free will one would have to look into both the implications of free will and of determination and consider that within the framework they are using to understand a number of other questions. For this reason, the traditions that we have explaining the necessity of free will focus on the injustice of reward and punishment without meaningful free will. This is an appeal to the lack of consistency of determination with the Justice of God in meaningful judgment and also to the implication of pointlessness in His testing His creation.

May you always be successful

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. Each person's reward is in accordance with the tests they face in relation to the gifts and abilities they have been given. As such people who are not born infallible will not be judged in the same way that the Infallibles (as) are. But at the same time, they are also not tested with the responsibilities of the Infallibles (as), nor are they rewarded in the same way. Infallibility is a knowledge that keeps a person away from sin and mistakes. It does not remove the free choice and therefore does not negate the applicability of reward for great actions. 

May you always be successful

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. Well done for staying away from the habit. May Allah grant you every success in maintaining it. The dreams will go by themselves with time so try not to focus or to feel

down when you have them. They can be remnants which have been marked in your psyche, but they also may be helpful in a way (in that they are a form of gradual movement) as they are dreams so they are not forbidden or in your control. 
 

May you always be successful 

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. Praying and wearing hijab are very important acts of obedience in Islam and are essential for a person's well being in this world and the next. These are personal obligations in front of God and so it is not right for another to interfere in them even if that be a spouse and indeed, a spouse's approval is not conditional for the acceptance of those actions. Marriages are different and so the solution in working towards a compromise is specific to each relationship. If there is something that is specifically bothering your husband maybe you can help him express his issues and talk through it. For some relationships people can agree to disagree on certain issues and in others they can't. But when it comes to the performance of obligatory actions then that is a line that you have to remain principled on, even if the consequences are difficult.

May Allah make you successful 

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. It is generally praiseworthy to be an approachable and kind person in normal circumstances. However, that is within the bounds of wisdom and chastity. It is not necessary to reply a typed salaam whether that be by email or other forms of instant messenger.

May you always be successful.

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. One of the most important strategies to combat most vices is to be aware of instances when you feel or act in an arrogant manner and to stop yourself from doing those things and to talk yourself out of your feelings of arrogance. It is then to pay closer attention to your attitudes and to intentionally increase your humbleness.
 

The path of self purification is not such that a person can only work on one issue without regard to other aspects. So the general path of purification decreases arrogance as a person becomes more illuminated by the light of faith.

May you always be successful 

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. While we cannot know the full Wisdom of God that does not prevent us from understanding something of the wisdom of God as it pertains to the creation. There are some laws that we can understand the wisdom behind and others that we do not know the wisdom of. But following those laws is not contingent on us understanding the wisdom behind them once we confirm the Wisdom of God and it's unlimited nature.
 

To give an example to illustrate the point, many times small children do not understand the wisdom of their parents when they prevent them or encourage them towards certain things. But if the parents are truly wise then it is in the benefit of the child whether that child understand the wisdom or not. Indeed to take this example further, in any relationship when one person is wise and the other is in need of wisdom, the one that needs wisdom is by definition he who does not understand that wisdom unless the wise person is able to explain it to them as part of their advice. That is a normal handicap for one that lacks wisdom even if it is not Divine Wisdom.

May you always be successful 

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. It depends what you mean by meditation. If it is akin to thinking (tafakkur) or watching over oneself (muraqaba) then these are practices which are condoned in Islam and indeed recommended for people seeking a spiritual life. But as for the Prophet's own states, much of that is unknown as they are states after the station of reaching. The Prophet's (saw) spiritual journey was different to most of ours as his beginning was further than where we will end up. Every station has its practice and the Prophet (saw) had states with Allah that we cannot quite imagine as we have not experienced the like of those states. Meditation in the sense that it is discussed as a spiritual or mental practice is much below these levels.

May you always be successful

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. The scriptural sources are clear in the fact that God cannot be known in His entirety with the faculties that humans possess. This is because a being limited to time and space cannot expect to understand a Being who is unlimited in every way. The system of creation is perfect in the sense that there is no imperfection in the way it functions and that indicates towards the Attributes of God, but those Attributes are only comprehended to the extent of our ability. The further one is able to explore the creation the better they will comprehend the Attributes from that perspective. The level of that investigation depends also on the epistemological tools that they are using. There is no way to fully understand the mind of God, especially through a process of induction from His creation.

May you always be successful

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. It is not established that the majority of people will end up in hell. As for the avoidance of creating those who God knew would end up in hell, that is an issue of Divine Wisdom for which we can try to reasonably understand with the assumption that we can know something of that wisdom. The issue could then be understood with reflection into the meaning and implications of free will. There would be no meaning to the creation of beings with free will if none of them had the choice to end up in hell. In this instance it is not accurate to frame the question from the perspective of Divine Mercy alone.

May you always be successful 

Bismillah

Thank you for your question. God didn't take the concent of His creation before creating it. Perhaps you are referring to His pact with humans when they responded positively to Him being their Lord? If that is the case then this is one of the specifics found in the Quran and once the Quran has been established as being the book of guidance from God then there is no need to prove each and every specific. Further, this issue can be interpreted as the natural disposition of the human to seek God. If the atheist is not willing to accept that they have that disposition, that doesn't matter as this position is a theological one and so there is no need to convince an atheist as long as the issue is consistent within the theological framework.

As for the second question, God created mankind out of His Mercy and that included the creation of vicegerents on the earth. The necessity of trial is due to the nature of reward which is given for praiseworthy action. There is no praiseworthy action if it hasn't really taken place or if it is forced. Therefore a human has to be free to act and this is the meaning of trial.

May you always be successful

Bismillah 

Thank you dor your question. Such a conception of God is inconsistent with Him being Infinite, as to demark each god you would have to limit both of them to their own bounds so as to have two separate gods. This is why our ahadith explain that the Oneness of God is not numerical oneness, but rather the Attribute of Him being Infinite doesn't allow for there to be any god other than Him.
 

Philosophically speaking the hypothesis of two gods has no ontological justification and would need to be established as coherent and perhaps this is why no religious tradition i know of speaks of this hypothetical scenario as a reality.

May you always be successful