Mīrdāmād, a famous Shiite scholar in the Safavid era, explains his ideas on one of the most controversial issues in the history of Islamic philosophy, that is the question of human free will, in Risāla al-Īqāẓāt fī al-Khalq al-Aʿmāl (Treatise of Awakenings on the Creation of Actions). Influenced by Tūsī’s solution for the problem, he also tries to justify human free will not alongside, but along the Primary Cause’s will. He intends to prove that human free will is not in contradiction to God’s absolute will by defining a middle way which is neither compulsion of man (ǧabr), nor delegation of power to man (tafwīd). In order to do that, he distinguishes two types of agents: the direct agent (al-fāʿil al-mubāshir), that is human being whose free will is the last component of the sufficient cause, and therefore, he is the free agent in performing his acts; and the Perfect Maker (al-ǧāʿil al-tām) who is the one that creates the existence of an act and all its causes and conditions, including human’s power, will and knowledge.
