A basket full of folded pieces of paper

Back in high school, I once posed this question to my elder brother: “If everything is destined, then how can there be a free will?”

My brother gave me a wonderfully simple yet insightful answer by giving the following illustration: “If I were to present you with a basket full of folded pieces of paper and ask you to pick one and yet tell you that I know exactly which one you will pick – won’t you still have the free will to choose which ever piece of paper you decide upon? This is exactly the relationship between Qadr and free will.”

This explanation has stayed with me ever since and has simplified this complicated concept.