Predestination in Islam

"Qadar" redirects here. For redirects to Iran, see Qadar, Iran.
Not to be confused with Qadariyya, a madh'hab of Aqidah in Islam Kalam..

Qadar (Arabic: قدر‎‎, transliterated qadar, meaning "fate", "divine fore-ordainment", "predestination")[1] is the concept of divine destiny in Islam.[2] It is one of Islam's six articles of faith, along with belief in the Oneness of Allah, the Revealed Books, the Prophets of Islam, the Day of Resurrection and Angels. This concept has also been mentioned in the Quran as Allah's "Decree".[3]

Definition

In Islam, "predestination" is the usual English language rendering of a belief that Muslims call al-qaḍāʾ wa al-qadr. The phrase means "the divine decree and the predestination"; al-qadr derives from a root that means to measure out.[4]

Concept

Qadar is one of the aspects of aqidah. Some Muslims believe that the divine destiny is when God wrote down in the Preserved Tablet ("al-Lauḥ al-Maḥfūẓ") all that has happened and will happen, which will come to pass as written. According to this belief, a person's action is not caused by what is written in the preserved tablet, but rather the action is written in the tablet because God already knows all occurrences without the restrictions of time.[5] On the other hand, the causal relationships are also part of Qadar, since human acts affect what's stated in the Erasing And Stating Tablet ("Lauḥ al-Mahu w al-Ithbat"). The phrase reflects a Muslim doctrine that Allah has measured out the span of every person's life, their lot of good or ill fortune, and the fruits of their efforts.[6] Again Allah does not need to force anyone to do good or evil by interfering with his will, and nobody will bear witness that Allah did so.[7] When referring to the future, Muslims

"They will cry out to them: Were we not with you? They shall say: Yes! but you caused yourselves to fall into temptation, and you waited and doubted, and vain desires deceived you till the threatened punishment of Allah came, while the archdeceiver deceived you about Allah. "
— Qur'an, Sura 57 (Al-Hadid), ayat 14[8]

According to the Qur'an, certain people go to hell because they chose to do bad deeds, and others to heaven by doing good deeds and even if Allah had chosen to guide them to the truth they themselves would choose to reject the faith:

"And if Allah had known any good in them He would have made them hear, and if He makes them hear they would turn back while they withdraw. "
— Qur'an, Sura 8 (Al-Anfaal), ayat 23[9]
"Nor would thy Lord be the One to destroy communities for a single wrong-doing, if its members were likely to mend. If thy Lord had so willed, He could have made mankind one people: but they will not cease to dispute. Except those on whom thy Lord hath bestowed His Mercy: and for this did He create them: and the Word of thy Lord shall be fulfilled: "I will fill Hell with jinns and men all together."
— Qur'an, Sura 11 (Hud), ayat 119[10]

A hadith reports that Muhammad said about Qadr:

Ali narrated that one day the Messenger of Allah was sitting with a wooden stick in his hand with which he was scratching the ground. He raised his head and said, “There is none of you, but has his place assigned either in the Fire or in Paradise.” They (the Companions) inquired, “O Allah’s Messenger! Why should we carry on doing good deeds, shall we depend (upon Qadar) and give up work?” Muhammad said: “No, carry on doing good deeds, for everyone will find it easy (to do) such deeds that will lead him towards that for which he has been created.” Then he recited the verse: “As for him who gives (in charity) and keeps his duty to Allah and fears Him, and believes in al-Husna, We will make smooth for him the path of Ease (goodness) (Surah al-Lail 92:5-7). Sahih Muslim

However, it is made clear that no person has the power to benefit or harm himself or others, and that guidance is only given by Allah, no one else has the power to give guidance. The Quran says:

"For those who do good is good (reward) and more (than this); and blackness or ignominy shall not cover their faces; these are the dwellers of the garden; in it they shall abide."
— Qur'an, Sura 10 (Yunus), ayat 26[11]

History

There are only two groups who represent the extremes regarding Qadar. Al-Jabiriyah are of the opinion that humans have no control over their actions and everything is dictated by Allah. The other group is Al-Qadiriyyah (not to be confused with the Sufi order, Al-Qaadirriyah) and they are of the opinion of humans having complete control over their destiny, to the extent that Allah does not even know what we will choose to do. The Sunni view is in the middle between these two views, where they believe that Allah has knowledge of everything that will be, but that humans have freedom of choice.

Among the historical proponents of the Sunni view of the doctrine were:

Among those who criticized the Sunni view of the doctrine were:

Sunni view

Sunni enumerate Qadar as one aspect of their creed (Arabic: aqidah‎‎). They believe that the divine destiny is when God wrote down in the Preserved Tablet ("al-Lawhu 'l-Mahfuz") all that has happened and will happen, which will come to pass as written.

According to this belief, a person's action is not caused by what is written in the Preserved Tablet but, rather, the action is written in the Preserved Tablet because God already knows all occurrences without the restrictions of time.[5]

An individual has power to choose, but since God created time and space he knows what will happen. God is without any bond of time and space. Therefore, what will happen has meaning only to humans, who are limited in time and space. An analogy is someone who watches a movie for the second time, who knows what will happen next, while for the first time watcher the next move is unknown.

Belief in al-Qadar is based on four things

  1. – العلم Al-'Alam – Knowledge: i.e., that Allah knows what had been, what will be, what was never been, and how it could be if it was. He also knows what his creation will do, by virtue of His eternal knowledge, including their choices that will take place.
  2. – كتابة Kitabat – Writing: i.e., that Allah has written every thing that exists including the destiny of all creatures in al-Lauh al-Mahfuz prior to creation.
  3. – مشيئة Mashii'at – Will: i.e., that what Allah wills happens and what He does not will does not happen. There is no movement in the heavens or on earth but happens by His will. This does not mean that He forces things to happen the way they happen in the area of human beings' voluntary actions. It means that He knew what they will choose, wrote it and now lets it happen.
  4. – الخلق Al-Khalq – Creation and formation: i.e., that Allah is the Creator of all things, including the actions of His servants. They do their actions in a real sense, and Allah is the Creator of them and of their actions.

Stages of Taqdeer (fate)

There are five stages where Qadar is determined and prescribed/send to creation:

  1. The Decree of Allah that is written in Al-Lawh Al-Mahfuud before the creation of the universe. This destiny written in the preserved tablet is never changed and encompasses everything that will be.
  2. Allah made a divine decree after the creation of Adam. Allah took out all of the progeny of Adam (i.e. all of the humans from the beginning of time until the end of time), and asked them "Am I not your Lord?" and all of the humans responded "We testify that You are our Lord!" Then Allah decreed to them who shall go to paradise and who shall go to hell.
  3. The Life-time decree. This occurs when a person is in the womb of their mother, specifically 120 days after conception. Allah sends an angel to put a soul into the person, and the angel writes down the decree that Allah has made; their life-span, their sex, their sustenance (how much they will earn throughout their lifetime) and whether they will be a dweller of paradise or a dweller of hell.
  4. The yearly decree. This is during the Night of Qadr (Night of Decree) where Allah sends down his decrees from heaven to earth, in it he destines the actions (deeds, sustenance, births, deaths, etc.) of creation for the next year. The word Qadar should not be confused with Qadr; Qadar is destiny, Qadr is that which has been destined, i.e. decree, thus the translation – Night of Decree.
  5. The Daily Decree. Allah decrees the daily actions of his creation.

An example of how these categorizations help clear the idea of destiny is as follows: It is possible that Allah sends a daily/yearly decree dictating that a person will get a profit. However, due to that person's good deeds (for instance, fulfilling the ties of kinship [being good to your relatives and maintaining the relationship]), Allah sends another decree increasing that person's profit. The reversal of the two decrees is all within Allah's knowledge and is recorded in the Preserved Tablet. The person himself knows nothing of his own destiny or of Allah's decrees, but what he does know is that if he performs certain good deeds, then He will increase his profit (as in the example above) more than if he does not do that deed.

In the light of the above the following may be derived:

Shi'a view

Twelvers, along with other Shia sects such as the Zaydis, reject predestination.[14][15][16][17] This belief is further emphasized by the Shia concept of Bada’, which states that God has not set a definite course for human history. Instead, God may alter the course of human history as is seen to be fit.

To show that there is no contradiction between being predestined, and free will, Shiite states that matters relating to the human destiny is of two kinds: definite and indefinite; to explain the definitive one, Shiite argues that God has definite power over the whole of existence, however, whenever He wills, He can replace a given destiny with another one; and that is what is called indefinite destiny. Some of these changes of destiny, thus, are brought about by man himself, who can through his free will, his decisions, and his way of life—lay the groundwork for a change in his destiny as been pointed out in the verses: Truly, God will not change the condition of a people as long as they do not change Their state themselves.[18] Both types of destinies, however, are contained within God's foreknowledge, Shiite argues, so that there could be no sort of change (Bada)concerning His knowledge. So the first type of destiny does not mean a limitation of God’s power; since God, in contrast to the belief of Jews who says the hand of God is tied’ asserts: Nay, His hands are spread out wide ....[19] So God has the power to change everything he wills and God's creativity is continuous. Accordingly, as Sobhani puts it, "all groups in Islam regard "bada" as a tenet of the faith, even if not all actually use the term."[20]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ J. M. Cowan (ed.) (1976). The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. Wiesbaden, Germany: Spoken Language Services. ISBN 0-87950-001-8
  2. ↑ ""Qadar"". missionislam.com. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  3. ↑ Muhsin Khan, Muhammad. The Noble Qur’an. Verily! We have sent it (this Qur'an) down in the night of Al-Qadr (Decree)
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on December 8, 2011. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
  5. 1 2 Moral Responsibility and Divine Will. Re: Blaming Destiny? Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ موقع الإسلام سؤال وجواب - عربي - islamqa.info
  7. ↑ Tosun, Ender (2012). Guide to Understanding Islam (PDF). Istanbul: Ender TOSUN. p. 272. ISBN 9786056319815.
  8. ↑ Quran 57:14
  9. ↑ Quran 8:23
  10. ↑ Quran 11:119
  11. ↑ Quran 10:100
  12. ↑ 431 hadith found in 'The Book of Faith (Kitab Al-Iman)' of Sahih Muslim.
  13. ↑ "Taqdeer (Fate)". inter-islam.org. Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  14. ↑ Need of Religion, by Sayyid Sa'id Akhtar Rizvi, p. 14.
  15. ↑ Islamic Beliefs, Practices, and Cultures, by Marshall Cavendish Corporation, p. 137.
  16. ↑ Religions of Man, by Charles Douglas Greer, p. 239.
  17. ↑ Muslims, by S. H. M. Rizvi, Shibani Roy, B. B. Dutta, p. 20.
  18. ↑ Quran, 13:11
  19. ↑ Quran, 5:64
  20. ↑ Sobhani, Ja'far. Doctrines of Shi'i Islam. Translated and Edited by Reza Shah-Kazemi. London - New York: I.B.Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies. pp. 159–163.

References

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