Qadar, a Measuring Out

And then the fifth article of faith is what is called qadar. And this is where one gets into debates, and people go on and on. This is an unsolvable problem; but what follows is an idea of how the Muslims have traditionally dealt with it. Qadar is in most books called predestination. The actual root word means a measuring out. A measuring out. Many verses in the Qurʾān indicate that God has measured out everything. Everything has what it needs. Everything will fulfil its quality and characteristic. From the Muslim point of view, it is the qadar of Allah — the design of the human being; we have been measured: our symmetry, how the human being emerges. It is the qadar of Allah how the lion appears. All of these things are measured out.

What is also measured out is one's provision in the world. Every human being has an appointed amount of provision. Now, interestingly, the Muslims generally say that provision is not what one possesses, but what one will use. So, for instance, Bill Gates, who is a multi-billionaire: his provision is only that which he will use. So if he has a house with a hundred rooms, and he only uses three of them, that is what has been allotted to him. The other rooms are not part of his provision. Provision is related to what one will use, and that has been predetermined.

Now, the obvious question that comes to people is: if things are predetermined, then where does will come into this? Where does the human being have will? From the Muslim perspective, the first thing that is understood here is that had there not been an element of will here, then there would be no meaning to punishment and reward. It would be unfair. And this is why a child is not punished: because the child does not have free will, in the sense that it does not have a full understanding of its own capacities, its volition, its ability to do harm. A child does not understand that, whereas an adult does. Qadar, then, in relation to free will, is that every human being will choose what they do; and in the action is the intention. So one's intention in any action is what one earns. We are not judged according to the action alone; we are judged according to the intention within the heart related to the action. This is what the human being is judged upon. And the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), in the first hadith in that same book, said: actions are by intentions.

Now, the other thing that the Muslims say is that no one has a sense that they are determined. There are obviously elements within our nature and our being that have a determination. No one decided what colour his skin was; no one decided who his parents were; no one decided where he would be raised, and what language he would be given. There are definitely elements in which we have no choice, and these are called wahbī. But then there are elements in which we have choice, which is called kasbī, which is related to acquisition; and this is what we are taken to account for. Now, in terms of good and evil, there is a belief here — in qadar, and in the hadith — in good and evil. The two words are khayr and sharr, which are very important…