Belief In Divine Will & Predestination
(Qada Wa Qadr)
Pre-eternal knowledge of Allah ﷻ and His Divine Will are two separate matters According to Islam, Allah’s pre-eternal knowledge of His creation does not mean His predestination of their acts. Allah ﷻ is Al Aleem (All Knowing and Most Knowledgeable) and He carries the knowledge of future of all His creation including humans. However, His pre-eternal knowledge of all humans and their destiny in this life and the hereafter, does not mean He predestines all actions for them. In other words pre-destination is not enforced upon any human as that would deprive us from exercising our God given free will and defeat the purpose of our existence. His pre-eternal knowledge of our acts and the influence of His divine will on our destiny are two separate matters. He observes our intentions and actions and then writes our destiny accordingly: "Allah erases whatever He will and He fixes whatever He will, and with Him is the Mother of the Book (Ummul Kitab)."[1] This ‘ ‘Erasing’ and ‘Fixing’ in the ‘Mother of the Book' is His decisions for His entire creation and for beings like ourselves who have been given free will. Our destinies are written in accordance to our intentions and actions which are conducted based on our free will. This verse clearly states that everything is ultimately in the hands of Allah ﷻ and if He wills He can change it for whomsoever He wills but He observes whether the person uses their free will to accept His guidance and obeys or rejects it and disobeys. It is in the light of this understanding that Allah ﷻ says: “As for him who gives (to others), keeps his duty to Allah, and believes in the Best reward from Allah, We will make smooth for him the path of ease. But he who is a greedy miser and thinks himself self-sufficient, and gives the lie to the Best reward from Allah we will make smooth for him the path for evil.”[2] Whatever is decreed in the mother of the book (ummul kitab) will determine and make smooth for us the path of ease or path of evil as: "... Allah has full knowledge of everything."[3] References: [1] Al Quran 13:39 [2] Al Quran 92:5-10 [3] Al Quran 24:35
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