In Christianity, I believe this providence is called the Holy Spirit and is accepted into the Christian's being.
Because our window onto Tolkien's pre-Christian England reveals a time long before Jesus Christ's sacrifice, there would not be such a thing as the Holy Spirit, or God's will living in man. However, as in the Old Testament of the Bible, we do see a distict will or force that moves seperate of the peoples of ME. In this way we can say that, as far as Tolkien's works go, free will was nearly absolute and isolated from Eru's.
The fact that special places of worship were set up so that men could go to honor and praise Eru is also indicative of the time period. From the time of Christ's death onward Christians have no need of meeting in a particular place to speak to God, for God is with us already.
I was not aware that Islam (or any other religion for that matter) had a "spirit" similar to Christianity's, but I am interested to hear more on this, Child.
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"'You," he said, "tell her all. What good came to you? Do you rejoice that Maleldil became a man? Tell her of your joys, and of what profit you had when you made Maleldil and death acquainted.'" -Perelandra, by C.S. Lewis
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