Qadar and Qaḍāʾ

Wa ʿalā al-ʿabdi an yaʿlama anna Allāha qad sabaqa ʿilmuhu fī kulli kāʾinin min khalqih, fa-qaddara dhālika taqdīran muḥkaman mubraman, laysa fīhi nāqiḍun wa lā muʿaqqibun wa lā muzīlun wa lā mughayyirun wa lā nāqiṣun wa lā zāʾidun, min khalqihi fī samāwātihi wa arḍih.

A servant of Allah is obliged to know that Allah's omniscience preceded everything in His creation.

His knowledge preceded everything in His creation.

He then measured everything out exactly and decisively.

Here come qadar and qaḍāʾ: two words that are normally used, since this is that discussion. The word qadar^**** means to preordain something, to plan something out beforehand, to provide a blueprint for something; and qadar then means actually to bring it into being. So qadar is more instant, and qaḍāʾ is more predestination. Some say it is the other way round. So there are different definitions of qadar and qaḍāʾ. But the general concept to have understood is that this is Allah's predestination, Allah's preknowledge, and Allah's preplanning of exactly what was to happen. And it is absolute. Nothing about it changes over time. It is exactly as He has always had it, from before.

That is why he says:

He then measured everything out exactly and decisively. There is none among His creatures, either in the heavens or on the earth, who can nullify, overrule, change, detract from, or add to His decree.

It happens exactly as He knows it is going to happen.

Wa dhālika min ʿaqdi al-īmāni wa uṣūli al-maʿrifah, wa-l-iʿtirāfi bi-tawḥīdi Allāhi taʿālā wa rubūbiyyatih, kamā qāla taʿālā fī kitābih…

The principles of knowledge (all of these are fundamentals that need to be understood), and assent to His unity and sovereignty, as Allah, the Sublime and Exalted, has said in His Book: And He created everything and determined its measure. And He, the Sublime and Exalted, also said: And the command of Allah is an ordained decree.

When He gives a command, it is the decree; it happens. What that basically means is the command for something to happen. There are also other instructions that Allah gives to human beings, but they do not always follow them. That is a different command. The reference here is more to the will: when He wills something, it happens. Allah has told everybody to believe, but there are many who do not believe. So they are going against the command of Allah, and going against the pleasure of Allah. But it is according to the will of Allah, because He has willed it: He has willed to allow it to happen, based on the free will of human beings, so that they are accountable for it. That is the distinction.

Even the wrong that happens in the world, and the evil that happens in the world, happens according to the will of Allah, because nothing can happen without the will of Allah. He is the one who gives the ability for those things to happen, and He allows them to happen. But they do not happen according to the instruction and command of Allah, because He commands that good happen. Nor do they happen according to the pleasure of Allah. So somebody who disbelieves and does wrong is going against the commands of Allah, and going against the pleasure of Allah; but at the same time, it is according to the will of Allah, because that is part of the free will that Allah (swt) has created in the human being.