Predestination Does Not Mean You Are Not Responsible
Lexically, Qada'a means Dominion and Control and Qadar means Decree or Order. When Allah SWT created Creation, He created it according to a blue print, the Lawh Al Mafuz, and He maintains dominion or Mulk over all of Creation, including ourselves.
Allah SWT is Ahad, a singularity, with no duration and no extent. Just as science describes, He created the universe out of "nothing" and it burst out from a singularity, and began to expand in both time and space. And it unfolds like an ancient scroll, ever expanding. As it unfolds, it does so according to the blue print established in the Lawh al Mafuz. And it will come to an end in the manner and in the time that Allah SWT has determined in that Lawh.
The English word "predestination" means that any event located in time and space is part of a causal chain, and is predictable based on the events preceding it. Have you ever played dominoes or seen a video of dominoes falling. The player places the tiles on a surface in a pattern. She then tips the first one, hitting the second, and then the whole chain falls through causation in a predictable pattern. The initial conditions, the pattern and positions of the tiles determines how every tile will fall, even the very last one. It is all a matter of force, position, angle, in other words, mathematics and physics. All governed by rules. All knowable, and predictable.
What about the universe? It is also subject to rules - e=mC2, gravity, magnetism, etc. So, Allah SWT, since He created the Universe and it is subject to His Knowledge and Dominion, knows every particle, every atom or quark, and where it is right now and where it has been and where it will be. He can perceive every moment and every location at all one time.
How do we know this? Allah SWT says in a hadith qudsi, Anna Asr, I am time. He also has said, Anna Witr wa ahibbu Witr, I am odd and I love that which is odd. Witr also can indicate singular, with no partner.
So, does this mean Allah SWT knows everything we will do? Yes. He does. Allah SWT says He does.
Now for the big question. Does that mean we are not free? Hmmmm. If we are not free then would it be unjust to punish us for acts that are not "our fault?"
Some Muslims seem to have this view. They are fatalistic. They think we humans are subject to fate and have no control over our behavior. Allah SWT is in complete control and we are just along for the ride and can do nothing about it.
How can this be so? Allah SWT says that when people do evil "they wrong themselves." This sounds like people can act in a way that "is their fault." Allah SWT does not compel them, they act out of their own free will.
Allah SWT also says that free will is essential to true belief in Allah and in taqwa. La ikraha fi deen. There is no compulsion, force, aggression, in matter of faith. No one can compel another to believe. Our faith in Allah must be an absolutely free and uncompelled choice.
Why? Allah SWT is free. He is free of everything. Nothing is akbar - greater or over Him. No force, rule, philosophical concept, nothing is akbar min Hu. Including morality. Allah SWT says in the Qur'an that He made a choice. He says that His Mercy exceeds His Wrath. This means He made a choice to be Merciful. Nothing compels Him to be so. He chose to be Al Rahman Al Rahim. And by making that choice, out of His Love and Mercy, the Creation came into being. He says He did not create all this for no purpose.
Then He created humanity and Jinn. Both have free will. Both can choose to act out of mercy and goodness or out of wrath and hate. Shaytan chose hate. In a jealous rage, he vowed to destroy us, humanity. Adam also disobeyed Allah, but he chose to be repentant, to be sorry, and in goodness and mercy Allah chose him to be our first Prophet.
You were created with free will, the freedom to chose to turn to Allah or to turn away. But understand, there are consequences. Just like the dominoes, your choices lead to predictable results. Allah SWT tells us in the Qur'an, that if we chose to obey Him, we will enter Jennah - Heaven. But, if we chose evil and disobedience, we will enter Hell. What is Hell? Allah SWT asks, "Ma saqar?" Well one thing we know, it is where He is not.
In this life, every moment of that life is spent with His Presence. He is always with you, even though you do not see Him. But, in Hell, you will be utterly alone. Think about that for a minute. It is a burning, a burning of the very soul.
So you have a free choice to love, to be merciful, to be with Allah and His Creation, or to be filled with hate and anger and be utterly alone.
Now, yes your end is predictable based on your actions in this life. But your choice to is completely free.
At any given time, the Universe is finite. It had a beginning, the Big Bang, and it is expanding. But at any instant it is NOT infinite. It has a beginning and an end. So the universe unfolds in duration (time) and extent (space), ever-expanding, but always finite. And you are unfolding with it.
Allah SWT, on the other hand, is always singular, Ahad, and has no duration and no extent. He is time, neither finite nor infinite. His view of our Created Universe is instantaneous and complete. Our view only encompasses Now - with memories of the past, and no "memory" of the future. For Allah SWT Now or Present, Past and Future are not distinct. For Him Time is One. This means that all the verbs and phrases we use to describe our interactions and concepts do not apply to Allah SWT. He is "wa lam yakunllahu kufuwan ahad."
Predestination, as used in English, implies that He decrees a matter some time in the past and then it happens later. Such a conception does not make sense when applied to Allah SWT and His Creation. These concepts of time - present, past and future only apply to us, humans and our fellow creatures. Not to Allah SWT.
So, although Allah SWT has complete control, dominion and power over His Creation, and He set forth the blue print for this Universe in the Lawh al Mafuz, the concept of predestination as fate predetermined at a time in the past, does not apply. Humans and Jinns have freedom of will within time and space. Allah SWT does not compel us and all of our choices are free.
Freedom, Morality and Responsibility
The fact that we have freedom of will is extremely important for without it, we would have no moral responsibility. And if that were true, to punish us for deeds that we were compelled to do would be very unjust.
Allah SWT is Just. He states in the Qur'an that He is never unjust. So, Allah can only punish us for deeds we do freely, and under the condition that we have moral responsibility, and that requires that we understand morality.
The Prophet SAW told us that the pen is lifted from three; the sleeper until he awakens, the minor child until he is adult, and the insane until he is sane. What distinguishes these three from most people is that their decisions are not subject to the full use of ones mental faculties. Making choices requires reason (aql) and some basic criteria upon which to make a good decision. This of course, means you have to know "good" from "bad." Allah SWT has placed in each one of us an ability to recognize good and bad, called the fitrah. For many animals, this is very basic, the ability to recognize what is good to eat or benefits you, versus what can kill you. Being social creatures, human also need to know what is good for our family or group, and what would be detrimental to it.
But other animals do not have free will. They are unable to make the kinds of choices we can make. And consequently, they are not punished. Even the angels obey Allah SWT without question. Their acts are not free. This is why we cannot say as some do, that Shaytan is a "fallen angel." He cannot be since he is to be punished for his choices.
Humans and Jinns have a fitrah, but because we have free will and can be punished, we are said to have moral responsibility. We are responsible for our own actions, and no one is responsible for the actions of another. So, we require more than a fitrah, we require guidance. We receive that from Allah through revelation to His Prophets. Allah SWT sends Prophets to guide us and teach us more details about morality, not just good and bad, but criteria, furqan, by which we can make responsible decisions in novel situations. With aql and furqan, we are able to act responsibly and exercise due diligence.
Allah's Greatest Power: Forgiveness
But even with aql and the furqan and fitrah, we err. Allah SWT knows we can err. But He tells the Malaikah that He knows something about us that they do not. He knows we have a marvelous ability. Tawbah! Repentance! We can repent our acts, rethinking them and asking Allah SWT for His forgiveness. And Allah SWT is al-Gafur.
We cannot be lazy. Predestination would mean we have no control, no responsibility. No matter what we do, the result will happen. This makes people lazy. The stop thinking, they stop considering other people, they act uncivilly, and fall deeper and deeper in greed, selfishness and evil. Deeper in Hell as well.
However, if we do our best, which we should always do, and we listen to the Prophets, use our reason, use the furqan given us, and exercise due diligence in all of our decisions, even if we err, Allah SWT will forgive us, if we seek his forgiveness in tawbah.
Allah's Qada'a means He has all dominion and control in the universe. He is subject to no one, no force, no rule, no thing. Qadar means He has a plan for this universe, it is not random, chaotic or for play. It has a blue print. Allah has cause all of creation to obey His commands; however, He has granted mankind and Jinns freedom of will to turn to Him and surrender in Islam or to turn away. This choice is not forced upon us. And if we use all the tools He has given us with due diligence and strive for His pleasure (jihad fi sabillilah), we will be rewarded for all of our efforts with forgiveness and with His Presence in Jennah.
May Allah SWT reward us all with Jennatul Firdaws!
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