Qadar

Everything is fixed and is under Allah's pre-determination. The two terms qadha and qadar mean different things. Qadar is pre-determination or pre-fixing of events before their occurrence. Qadha is a term used to refer to the empirical or practical occurrence of what was pre-determined by qadar. In the stage of qadar Allah knows what will happen but the human does not. The human has to struggle as best as he can to achieve a desired objective. In the stage of qadha the event has occurred, the human has to accept what happened because now he can do nothing to reverse the qadar of Allah. Allah’s knowledge and will are unrestricted. Humans have to surrender to Allah’s will. They cannot change established qadar except by dua. Belief in qadar is associated with contentment of the heart, avoidance of excessive joy and sadness, bravery and initiative, and lack of fear. There is no escape from qadar since it operates everywhere. Everything was pre-determined before the creation of the earth and the heavens and is recorded in Allah’s great record. All phenomena and events in the universe follow the program in the record. Ordinary humans have no way of knowing what is in the record. Qadar It is part of belief in the unseen because human intellect cannot on its own logically work out all aspects of qadar.

Will, Knowledge And Power

Allah’s knowledge, will, and power are unlimited. Human will, knowledge, and power are limited. The limited human will can be misguided by shaitan. A human in the course of normal life gets good and bad experiences. A believing Muslim knows that all is part of qadar and says ‘praise be to Allah’, alhamdu li llaah, for both good and bad experiences. The terms good and bad in human experience and knowledge are relative. What may appear to be good may turn out to be bad. What may appear to be bad may turn out to be good.

Human Action

All human actions were created by Allah. He knows the actions of humans in advance. Allah tries humans by letting them be free in the choice of their actions but He knows in advance what they will choose. Whatever choices the human makes Allah is forgiving and is kind. Free will entails responsibility and humans are responsible for their actions and are accountable for their choices. Humans should not give up struggling relying on qadar and arguing that everything is pre-determined. They have to make all the efforts that is humanly possible to achieve a good result. The laws of causality are fixed such that an action is inevitably followed by the predictable result unless there is special divine intervention. However despite all human effort the results turn out different from the expectation, the human must submit and accept the will of Allah. A human can be guided or misguided. Guidance in the long run is from Allah. Humans within their limited will can exert effort to be guided. All of the human’s life on earth is a great test of how well the free will is used.

Causality And Causal Relations

In most human situations phenomena follow the fixed causal laws ie action is followed by an effect. Each event has a cause, sabab. All causes are from Allah. The causal laws are called ‘sunan Allah fi al kawn’ in Qur’anic terminology. These laws are fixed and are stable. Allah is not bound to obey these laws because they are His laws. His will is above them and can alter them. Allah created the causes and the effects. Thus causes are part of qadar. Normally the cause is followed by the expected result. There are however situations such as prophetic miracles in which divine intervention breaks those physical laws known to humans. In such situations one qadar is reversing another qadar.

Misunderstanding of Qadar

Correct understanding of qadar requires distinguishing tawakkul that is good from tawaakul that is bad. Tawakkul in relying on Allah after taking all the necessary measures to achieve an objective following the laws of causality. Tawaakul is giving up all effort and just wait for things to happen. Human illness is part of qadar. Medical treatment is not denial of or attempting to reverse qadar. Both the disease and its treatment are part of Allah’s all-embracing qadar. The human in his limited knowledge cannot distinguish between curable and incurable disease. He therefore plays safe by treating all diseases to the best of their ability being fully aware that this is an attempt and leave the rest to Allah. Allah alone determines the life and death. No human can give life or take it away. The human can be involved as an agent but not as a cause. These are matters of qadar that the human intellect cannot understand fully. Trying to search into such matters leads to perdition. It is therefore advised not to go deep in matters of qadar.