Free will...Idries Shah!

A certain Sufi master was walking along a country road with one of his disciples. The disciple said: “I know that the best day of my life was when I decided to seek you out, and when I discovered that through your presence I would find myself.”The Sufi said: “Decision, whether for support or opposition, is a thing which you do not know until you know it. You do not know it through thinking that you know it.”The disciple said: “Your meaning is obscure to me, and your statement is dark, and your intention is veiled from me.”The master said: “You will in few moments see something about the value of decision, and who it is that makes decisions.”Presently they came to a meadow, where a farm worker was throwing a stick to a dog. The Sufi said: “I will count five, and he will throw three sticks to the dog.”Sure enough, when the Sufi had so counted, the man picked up three sticks and threw them to the dog, even though they were out of earshot and the man had not seen the pair.Now the Sufi said: “I will count three, and the man will sit down.”As soon as he had counted to three, the man did indeed sit down,suddenly, on the ground.Now the disciple, full of wonder, said: “Could he be induced to raise his arms into the air?”The Sufi nodded and, as they watched, the man’s hands rose towards the sky. The disciple was amazed, but the Sufi said: “Let us now approach this man and speak with him.” When they had saluted the farm worker,the Sufi said to him: “Why did you throw three sticks instead of one for the dog to retrieve?”The farm man answered: “I decided to do it as a test, to see whether he could follow more than one stick.”“So it was your own decision?” “Yes,” said the man, “nobody told me to do it.”“And” said the Sufi, “why did you sit down so suddenly?”“Because I thought I would rest.”“Did anyone suggest it?”“There is nobody here to suggest it.”“And when you raised your arms in the air, why was that?”“Because I decided that it was lazy to sit on the ground, and I felt that raising my arms towards Heaven would indicate that I should work rather than rest, and that inspiration to overcome laziness came from on high.”“Was that a decision of your own and nobody else’s?”“There was, indeed, nobody to make such a decision for me, and in any case it followed from my previous action.”The Sufi now turned to the disciple and said: “Immediately before this experience, you were saying to me that you were glad you had made certain decisions, such as the one that you should seek me out.”The disciple was completely silent. But the farm worker said: “I know you dervishes. You are trying to impress this hapless youth with your powers, but it is sure to be a form of trickery.”
~as collected by Idries Shah