# Predestination in Islam

Qadar (Arabic: قدر, transliterated qadar,meaning literally "power", but translated variously as: "divine fore-ordainment", "predestination," "divine decree", "decree of Allah", "preordainment") is the concept of divine destiny in Islam. As God is all-knowing and all-powerful, everything that has happened and will happen in the universe is already known. At the same time, human beings are responsible for their actions, and will be rewarded or punished accordingly on Judgement Day.
Predestination/Divine Destiny is one of Sunni 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). In Sunni discourse, those who assert free-will are called Qadariyya, while those who reject free-will are called Jabriyya.
Some early Islamic schools (Qadariyah and Muʿtazila) did not accept the doctrine of predestination; Predestination is not included in the Five Articles of Faith of Shi'i Islam. At least a few sources describe Shi'i Muslims as denying predestination.

## Definition

In Islam, "predestination" is the usual English language rendering of a belief that Muslims call al-qaḍāʾ wa l-qadar ( القضاء والقدر). As per the Sunni understanding, the phrase means "the divine decree and the predestination"; al-qadr more closely means "(divine) power", deriving from the root ق د ر (q-d-r), which denotes concepts related to measuring out, aiming, calculating, preparing, being able, and having power.
Another source states, that according to scholars:
* "the divine decree (al-qada’) consists of the entire and complete judgment forever",
* "the divine measurement (al-qadar) consists of the particulars of the judgment and its details".
(The name of the 97th surah of the Qur'an is known as Surat al-Qadr).
* Taqdeer Arabic: تقدیر also refers to predestination in Islam, the "absolute decree of the Divine", and comes from the same Q-D-R three consonant root, but is of a different "grammatical orders and thus not considered interchangeable" with Qadr. In Arabic it literally means ‘making a thing according to a measure’, or ‘occurrence of events according to pre-defined measures, standards or criteria’. It is found in verses Q.41:12, Q.36:38, Q.6:96.

## History

Based on what has been preserved of the poetry of pre-Islamic Arabs, it is thought that they believed that the date of the person's death (ajal), was predetermined "no matter what he or she did". A person's "provision" or "sustenance" (rizq), essentially food, was also pre-determined. The concept of ajal is also found in the Quran in several verses, especially one revealed in reply to criticism of Muḥammad's military strategy (go out to Mount Uhud to fight when Muslims were attacked in Medina by the Meccans) that some Muslims complained led to unnecessary loss of life:
* "If you had been in your houses, those for whom killing was written down would have sallied out to the places of their falling" (Q.3:154).
(The verse expresses a different point of view—that acts are not predetermined, but their outcome is—than the later theological position that God knows/determines everything that happens.) The Qurʾān also speaks specifically of the supply of rizq, or provision being in God control:
* "He lavishes rizq on whom He wills, or stints it" (Q.30:37)
The question of how to reconcile God's absolute power with human responsibility for their actions, led to "one of the earliest sectarian schisms" in Islam, between the Qadarites (aka Qadariyah), who believed in total free will of humans (and who appeared in Damascus around the end of the seventh century CE); and the Jabriyya, who believed in "absolute" divine "determinism and fatalism". One statement of the Qadarite school doctrine (Kitābu-l Milal wal Niḥal by Al Mahdi lidin Allah Ahmad b. Yaḥyā b. Al Murtaḍā (a.h. 764–840)) arguing against determinism stated:
* God knows that men will commit crimes, but his (fore) knowledge does not impel them so to do.
* God wills nothing but that which is good (p. 12) 3
* Everything happens by the decree and predestination of God except evil works (ألمعاصى "disobediences")
Ma'bad al-Juhani (d.699 CE), was considered as the forerunner of the predestination rejectionists in Islamic community as he questioned the essence of Fate. Abd al-Rahman al-Awza'i has recorded that Ma'bad was influenced by an anonymous Christian theologian figure called Susan. Ma'bad was crucified by the orders of the Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan in Damascus.
The Umayyad, during their reign, took the theological position that God had bestowed the caliphate on them, just as the Qurʾān described the bestowing of a caliphate on Adam (Q.2:30). Among their opponents were Qādarī who asserted "human free will in some form", such as that the good acts of any person come from God, but their bad acts (including those of God's caliph) come from themselves. The Mu‘tazili school argued that since justice (‘adl) is "the true essence" of divinity, "God can only do and only wishes what is salutary for human beings". (Based on verses Q.3:104, Q.22:10, Q.4:81.) He not only orders people to do that which is good and forbids them to do that which is reprehensible, he abstains from doing evil Himself. The evil in the world comes instead from Man's/human beings' free will. Man (the human race), therefore, is "the genuine “creator” (khāliq) of his actions". After the dispute between the Qadarites and Jabarites, majority of Muslims community at that time followed the middle path dictated by the Quran and Sunnah, "between the two extremes".
Following the overthrow of the Umayyad dynasty by the Abbasid in 750 CE, the Qādarī movement "either faded out or was absorbed into the rationalist Muʿtazila movement". The next two schools that felt the need to reconcile the idea of an omnipotent God (creating everything including human actions) with a just God (who does not hold human beings responsible for acts God, not they, willed), were the Muʿtazila and the Ashʿaris.
In 12th AD, Al-Shahrastani from Shafi'i school has expanded the heresiology in Islamic academic establishment, where he classified Jabriyya as movement into two groups, the Jabariyyah al-Khalishah (extreme Jabriyya), and the Jabariyyah Mutawassithah (moderate Jabriyya). Al-Shahrastani explained that the first group was the first generation was consisted of Ja'd ibn Dirham and his successors, who completely rejected Indeterminism of mortal's will. Meanwhile, the second group was the Ash'arism, who only rejected certain aspects of "mortal's will" attribute, by adopting Jabriyya element of doctrine of assimilating willed act with compelled act.
Recently in modern era, the Hanbali school fatwa site IslamQA stated that predestination is one of those issues which God urges Muslims to not delve too much; including the fate of person's if he or she would enter heaven or hell. Islamic modernism such as Muḥammad ʿAbduh, and Fazlur Rahman Malik, viewed that God knew the mortals acts. Justin Parrott from muslimmatters.org magazine, has stated that "from a purely rational standpoint", it may seem impossible for God to have absolute knowledge and power over all action in the universe, and for humans to be responsible for their actions. Thus, Parrott stated that certain divine realities such as predestination are outside the limits of the human mind.

## Sunni view

Sunni scholastic communities enumerate Qadar as one aspect of their creed (Arabic: aqidah), as their established creed has it:
* "Belief in Qadr or predestination as one of the six article of faith,
* "God has foreknowledge of everything ... Even if the fate of man's soul is predetermined, he (man) has no way of knowing what that fate is, and therefore it behooves him to strive for Allah's favor." (Thomas W. Lippman).
The sources of the creed are based from Qur'an chapters of Al-Muddaththir 74:56, al-Ahzab 33:38, al-Qamar 54:49, Al-Baqara 2:117, Sahih al-Bukhari 6/84 and Sahih Muslim, vol. 4, p. 1393, among others. The Tabi'un (second generation of Muslims) traditions has reported that Companions of the Prophet such as Ubayy ibn Ka'b, Abd Allah ibn Mas'ud, Hudhayfah ibn al-Yaman, and Zayd ibn Thabit has taught them that the belief of predestination is obligatory in Islam. Abd Allah ibn Umar ibn al-Khattab, son of caliph Umar; even goes so far that he branded the early Qadariyah (predestination rejectionists) as "Magi of this era".

### Sins and misfortunes

According to Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadith, The instruments in fate is based on four things, components aspects:
* – العلم Al-ʿIlm – Knowledge: i.e., that God is the most knowing about everything
* – كتابة Kitabah – Writing: i.e., that God has written everything that exists including the destiny of all creatures in al-Lawhu 'l-Mahfuz prior to creation. Also called God's "pre-recording".
* – مشيئة Mashii'ah – Will: i.e., that anything God wills will happen, and what He does not will will not happen.
* – الخلق Al-Khalq – Creation and formation: i.e., that everything is God's creation, including the actions of His creations, and even including the theoretical "intentional inexistence/nonexistent objects" also created by God.
Al-Shafi'i, founder of Shafi'i Madhhab; has stated that any fates whether good or bad are under the command of Divine's will. His successor, Al-Muzani, has further explained the reason why Iblis (the Devil), immorality, and bad deeds were created by God; despite God's knowledge about the outcome was to demonstrate the causality of consequences of a person's choice in the aftermath, where such deeds would become the Hearing session's materials against the person for the court trial during the Judgement Day in Islam. This ruling also used by Ibn Taymiyya to declare that committing grave sins such as suicide are essentially not consented God. Meanwhile, Ibn Taymiyya further described this means human cannot blame the fate for their own misdeeds, since such things were demonstrated and acted upon by themselves during their lifetime, despite already prescribed in their fate.
Regarding the non-consensual calamity, misfortune, or affliction,(musiba,( مصيبة)) Ibn Kathir commented about At-Taghabun 64:11 that a calamity is a concept which included within Qadar or destiny, which it could only happened or averted by God's will. Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya asserted in the context of fate for a muslim, it is created by God as a test of faith. Meanwhile, Muhammad Al-Munajjid quoted Qur'an 2:216 that misfortune should be though with positivity for Muslim as it is meant to be "blessing in disguise".

### Predestination and free will

Incompatibility between predestination and free will is not an issue in major Sunni Islam sources, as they held the rationale that both could coexist. In orthodox Islam, God's control over what happens in his creation is absolute. "Allah has decreed all things from eternity". He knows that they will happen, when they will happen, how they will happen, and "He has written that and willed it". This includes "the pettiest of human or other, affairs", not withstanding "the grandeur of God's cosmic role".
In response about the polemical debate regarding the issue of "Will of God" (predestination) vs "Will of creatures/mortals" (free will), Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani classified the destiny as a whole consisted of two parts, Qada (God's decree which precede Qadar) and Qadar. Catherine Smith, an anthropologist and Ethnographist who researched about Aceh Muslim society which afflicted by 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami trauma; has illustrated the concept of Qada and Qadar based on her interviews with the local Muslims, who regards the Tsunami disaster (and other retroactive inevitable experience such as death) as a "Qada"; or fixed destiny which should be accepted as inevitable, while Qadar was something to be strived upon since its result still indeterminate from the perspective of human.
Ibn Taymiyya has classified fate into several stages of Taqdir (; fate, verbal noun of Qadar), where Qadar is determined and prescribed/sent to creation, which divided the fate into 5 type in accordance of its priorities:
* Taqdir al-‘Aam (general fate)/ Taqdir Azali (divine fate): Sunni muslims believe the divine destiny is a highest authority of God which Preserved Tablet (Lawh al-Mahfuz) before any creations. The content of this Taqdir are all that has happened and will happen, which will come to pass as written. According to Al-Tahawi, divine destiny the origin of destiny is the secret of God. Not even archangels or Prophets and messengers in Islam had knowledge about Qadr. Ibn Taymiyyah based this kind of Taqdir from Al-Hajj 22:10 and Sahih Muslim chapter VIII Hadith number 51. This Taqdir encompassed and controlled another Taqdirs.
* Taqdir al-Bashari (lit. fate of humans): The next stage of Taqdir after the creation of Adam. God 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. This Taqdir encompassed, controlled, and could be intervened by Taqdir al-Azali. The basis of this Taqdir are Al-A'raf 7:172 and a Hadith narrated by a companion of Muhammad named Hisham ibn Hakim, which recorded by Ibn Abi Asim in his work, as-Sunnah, and Al-Suyuti in his work, Al-Dur al-Manthur.
* Taqdir al-'Umri (lit. fate of age): This occurs when people are in the womb of their mothers, specifically 120 days phase from Zygote to fetus. God sends an angel to put a soul into the body, and the angel writes down the decree that God has made; their life-spans, their actions, their sustenances (how much they will earn throughout their lifetime) and whether they will be dwellers of paradise or a dweller of hell. This Taqdir encompassed, controlled, and could be intervened by Taqdir al-Azali, and Taqdir al-Bashari. The basis of this Taqdir is a hadith about Taqdir al-'Umri which recorded in Sahih al-Bukhari, (VII/210, no. 3208), Sahih Muslim, (VIII/44, no. 2643), dan record of Ibn Majah, (I/29, no. 76).
* Taqdir Sanawi / Taqdir Hawl (fate of yearly): an annual decree of fate which occur every Night of Qadr (Night of Decree) where God 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. The basis of this Taqdir are ad-Dukhan 44:4 and al-Qadr 97:4-5. This Taqdir encompassed, controlled, and could be intervened by Taqdir al-Azali, and Taqdir al-Bashari.
* Taqdir Yawmi (fate of daily): God decrees the daily fate of his creations; whether its their acts, wills, emotions, or interactions. The basis of this Taqdir is ar-Rahman 55:20 This Taqdir encompassed, controlled, and could be intervened by Higher Taqdirs.
Ibn Taymiyya explained that these levels of fate is that mortal's fate depends on the good deeds or bad deeds of a person, indicating the freedom of choice which could change the predetermined fate of 'Umri, Sanawi, and Yawmi, thus Ibn Taymiyya concluded that the "free will" of humans and jinn within the frameworks of fate are located under al-'Aam and al-Bashari. Al-Uthaymin quoted a hadith recorded by Al-Hakim al-Nishapuri which stated "a prayer could change one's destiny", that means the action of good deed such as prayer are indeterminate from the perspective of Taqdir Yawmi, which could change the predestined priority of Taqdir al-'Umri; However, such changes of fate was already recorded and calculated from the perspective of Taqdir al-‘Aam/Azali; the highest order of fates stage. Meanwhile, Taqdir Sanawi and al-Umri is regulated by angels, they also still depended to Taqdir al-Bashari; which are second only to Taqdir al-'Aam in priority. These two highest Taqdirs are controlled directly by God, where Taqdir al-'Aam also control and bound the entire universe and creations, including the angels themselves, as the angels did not have knowledge about Taqdir al-Bashari, and Taqdir al-'Aam, as per explanation of Ibn Hajar about Hadith of Gabriel.
Ibn Abi al-Izz then concluded that in this context, the concept of fate or destiny does not contradict the existence of human's free will, since some fates or Taqdirs can be changed into another fates which already prepared by God. Furthermore, Salih as-Sadlan from Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University gave the example from a hadith authored by Salman the Persian which stated "a supplication could prolong one's lifespan". Salih explained that in broader sense, this Hadith explained that one's fated death could be delayed and misfortunes could averted based on good deeds.
Thereby, based on those tenets about the Taqdirs or fates, classical era Atharism scholars, which followed by modern era Salafi scholars has established their Heresiology, where they branded polemicists who rejected "free will of mortals" as Jabriyya, while those who questioned or rejected the "Will of God" as Qadariyah. Al-Aqida al-Tahawiyya (The creed of Al-Tahawi) warns "that providence" (the seeming conflict of divine decree with human free will) is such a secret that even God's most obedient and holy creatures were not let in on the mystery. As a result, the scholars emphasized that providence is a secret of Allah and that "going too deeply into it philosophically" will lead to "misguidance". Meanwhile, in the 35th article of Tahawi creed, Saleh Al-Fawzan has referenced Al-Insan 76:30 and At-Takwir 81:29 to support the notion of al-Tahawi to refute the Jabriyya and Qadariyya, that both will of God and will of creatures existed with different priorities.
Ibn Mada' of Zahiri school has taken a different approach, as his stance about predestination stemmed from linguistic. He explicitly denied the ability of human beings to willfully choose what they say and how they say it, since speech –like all other things– is predetermined by God.
According to Maturidi belief, all active possibilities are created by God and humans act in accordance with their free intention to choose which action they follow. In this way, the intention precedes the created action and capacity by which actions are acquired (kasb in Arabic).

## Shi'a view

Shi'i Twelvers, along with other Shia sects, such as the Zaydis, reject predestination. At least one Shi'i scholar (Naser Makarem Shirazi) argues "belief in predestination is a denial of justice". 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 God sees fit.
However, according to Encyclopedia.com (drawing from W. Montgomery Watt and Asma Afsaruddin), contemporary Imāmīs, aka Twelver Shi'a, "in general, subscribe to the doctrine of divine determination with a nod in the direction of free will; Ismāʿīlī views are not dissimilar. The Zaydī Shīʿī are closer to the Muʿtazilah in their views".
Some positions taken by leading Shi'i scholars (quotes from Maria De Cillis) include:
* "human actions are created by God and can "simultaneously" be classified as free actions" and divinely "obligatory actions".
** Free unless someone had forced the person to do them, and obligatory because they "proceeded from a cause produced by God". Hisham ibn al-Hakam, a companion of Ja‘far al-Sādiq and also a scholar.
** This position was adopted by the Qom's theological school and the Shi'i hadith scholar al-Kulaynī (d. 941),
* God can not "be deemed either the creator of actions or the One wishing wicked human actions". Sheikh al-Mufīd (d. 1022), member of Baghdad's Imamite school.
The idea of "a tablet" with the future written on it is not unique to Sunni Islam as one Twelver Shi'i scholar (Al-Shaykh Al-Mufid d.1022), claiming that "the Tablet is the Book of Almighty Allah in which He has written all that will be till the Day of Resurrection".
To show that there is no contradiction between being predestined, and free will, Shiites state that matters relating to human destiny are of two kinds: definite and indefinite. To explain the definitive one, Shiites argue that God has definite power over the whole of existence, however, so 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 has been pointed out in the verse:
* Truly, God will not change the condition of a people as long as they do not change Their state themselves. (Q.13:11)
Both types of destinies, however, are contained within God's foreknowledge, Shiites argue, so that there could be no sort of change (badaʾ lit. "mutability") 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 said the hand of God is tied’ asserts: Nay, His hands are spread out wide .... 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."
Iranian scholar Naser Makarem Shirazi asserts that "belief in predestination is a denial of justice", and that there is free will in Islam, but at the same time (according to him) God has foreknowledge of everything in the future. He tackles the paradox of God knowing man will commit a certain sin, and man's free will to commit it by postulating the existence of a machine so advanced that it can predict the occurrence of an event some hours in advance. Yet one would not say the machine compelled that event to occur; likewise, God's perfect knowledge doesn't compel man to commit sins.

### Ismaili

Ismaili thinkers such as Abu Hatim Ahmad ibn Hamdan al-Razi, Muhammad Ibn Ahmad al-Nasafī, Ishāq Ibn Ahmad al-Sijistānī, Al-Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 974) and Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, contributes the development of the understanding about qadā’ and qadar in Ismaili doctrine. They wrote that humans were not able to fully grasp the Qur’anic truths in their exoteric and esoteric essence. Human knowledge, therefore required guidance from the authoritative imams of Ismaili faith.

## Philosophical controversies

The question regarding predestination has been raised by the early Islamic rationalist Muʿtazila school of thought, if everything that has happened and will happen, including all acts of good and evil, has already been determined by God, doesn't that mean that everything a human being does during their life is only following God's decree? How can human beings be responsible for this, and even punished with eternal torment in hell for it? According to Justin Parrott of the Islamic Yaqeen Institute, "it has been an important issue throughout history", addressed by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle over 2000 years ago. Orientalist Alfred Guillaume points out the dilemma "has exercised the minds" of theologians of all religions "which claim to present" a god that is both almighty and moral.
The 10th century Ash'ari school of theology, (which is one of the main Sunni schools of Islamic theology), reconciles punishment in hell with the doctrine of total divine power over everything, with their own doctrine of kasb (acquisition). According to it, while any and all acts, including human acts of evil, are created by God, the human being who performs the act is responsible for it, because they have "acquired" the act. Humans only have the power to decide between the given possibilities God has created. Maria De Cillis explains Al-Baqillani has specify the difference between a non free act and an acquired act, that "To acquire" in this context means the person perform his act freely by virtue of physical forces generated by the joined acts. Such act was related with the concept which led to divide reward or punishment. al-Bāqillānī recognised that a person had the capacity to act in such a way as to make their actions coincide with what God wanted or rejected, thereby conferring moral connotations upon actions. Muʿtazila argued that it was "unthinkable" that God "would punish man for what He himself had commanded".
Critics have accused Muhammad of making "no effort to grapple with the difficulty his self-contradictory revelations on this subject caused to subsequent thinker." Critic of Islam Ibn Warraq complains that the "system of predestination" turns men into "automata", undermining "the notion of moral responsibility" and the justification for the harsh punishment of hellfire. According to Maria De Cillis, the political consequences of the free will against determinism debate has extended to beyond academic and ulama field; as it breached into the realm of politics as this matter has relationship with the social context; (for example, when tyrannical and corrupt authorities encourage fatalism to point out that these maladies are "divinely willed and preordained"). According to Justin Parrott, the thought that everything has already decreed by the Creator has given problems for theologians and philosophers, even for the single matter of the aspect about the relationship between predestination and free will. Cedomir Nestorovic asserts that the limited acceptance of free-will might have influence on the Islamic market place. The belief in free-will might motivate an individual to change the order of things. If there is a lack of belief in free-will, it is unlikely for a company to make changes.