Prophet Rasûlullah (sall-Allâhu ta’âlâ ’alaihi wa sallam) said that îmân was to believe in six certain facts. He declared that “First of all, to believe in Allâhu ta’âlâ, second to believe in His angels. third to believe the Books revealed by Allâhu ta’âlâ, fourth to believe in Allâhu ta’âlâ’s prophet, fifth to believe in the Last Day (al-Yawm al-âkhir.” And he went on to declare the last one:
The last of the six fundamentals of îmân is “to believe in qadar, [that is] that good (khair) and evil (sharr) are from Allâhu ta’âlâ.” Good and evil, advantage and harm, profit and loss coming upon human beings are all by Allâhu ta’âlâ’s Will. ‘Qadar’ means ‘measuring a quantity; decision, order; muchness and largeness.’ Allâhu ta’âlâ’s Eternal Will for the existence of something is called qadar (predestination). The [instance of] occurrence of qadar, that is, the thing willed, is called qadâ’. Qadâ’ and qadar are also used interchangeably. Accordingly, qadâ’ means Allâhu ta’âlâ’s predestination in eternity of things that have been and will be created from eternity in the past to the everlasting future, and qadar means the [instance of] creation of anything just compatibly with qadâ’, neither less nor more. In eternal past, Allâhu ta’âlâ knew everything that would happen. This knowledge of His is called qadâ’ and qadar. Ancient Greek philosophers called it al-’inâyat al-azaliyya (the eternal favour). All creatures came about from the qadâ’. Also the creation of things according to His knowledge in the past eternity is called qadâ’ and qadar. In believing qadar we should know for certain and believe that if Allâhu ta’âlâ willed in eternity to create something, it certainly has to exist exactly as He willed, neither less nor more; nonexistence of things He determined to create, or existence of things He determined not to create, is impossible.
All animals, plants, non-living creatures [solids, liquids, gases, stars, molecules, atoms, electrons, electromagnetic waves, every movement of every creature, physical events, chemical and nuclear reactions, relations of energy, physiological events in the living creatures] existence or nonexistence of everything, good and evil deeds of human beings, their punishment in this world and in the next world and everything existed in Allâhu ta’âlâ’s Knowledge in eternity. He knew all in eternity. Things that happen from eternity in the past to everlasting future, their peculiarites, movements and every event, are created by Him in accord with what He knew in eternity. All the good and evil deeds of human beings, their belief or disbelief in Islam, all their actions, done willingly or unwillingly, are created by Allâhu ta’âlâ. He alone is the One who creates and makes everything that happens through a sabab (cause, means, intermediary). He creates everything through some means.
For example, fire burns. In reality, Allâhu ta’âlâ is the One who creates burning. Fire does not have anything to do with burning. But His Custom (’Âdat) is such that unless fire touches something He does not create burning.[2] Allâhu ta’âlâ alone is the One who burns. He can burn without fire as well, but it is His Custom to burn with fire. If He wills not to burn, He prevents burning even in fire. He did not burn Ibrâhîm (’alaihi ’s-salâm)) in fire; because He loved him very much, He suspended His Custom.[3]
If Allâhu ta’âlâ had willed, He could have created everything without means, burning without fire, nourish us without us eating and make us fly without an airplane and hear from a long distance without a radio. But He did men the favour of creating everything through some intermediaries. He willed to create certain things through certain intermediaries. He did His works under intermediaries. He concealed His Power behind intermediaries. He who wants Him to create something holds on to its means and thus obtains it.[4]
If Allâhu ta’âlâ did not create His works through intermediaries, no one would need anybody else; everybody would ask everything directly from Allâhu ta’âlâ and would have recourse to nothing; there would not be social relations between people such as the superior and the subordinate, foreman and workman, pupil and teacher and so forth, and thus this world and the next would be in disorder and there would not be any difference between the beautiful and the loathsome, good and evil, the obedient and the disobedient.
If Allâhu ta’âlâ had willed, He would have created His Custom in some other way and He would have created everything according to it. For example, if He had willed, He would put disbelievers, those who are addicted to pleasures in the world, those who hurt others and the deceitful into Paradise, and He would put the faithful, worshippers and the benevolent into Hell. But âyats and hadîths show that He did not will so.
He is the One who creates all optional or voluntary and involuntary actions and movements of human beings. He created ikhtiyâr (option) and irâda (will) in born slaves for His creating their optional, voluntary actions, and made this option and will a means for creating their actions. When man wants to do something, Allâhu ta’âlâ creates this action if He wills, too. If man does not want or will and if Allâhu ta’âlâ does not will, either, He does not create. Allâhu ta’âlâ creates upon not only man’s wish; He creates if He wills, too. Allâhu ta’âlâ’s creating man’s optional actions is similar to when fire touches something, He creates burning of that thing, and if fire does not touch it, He does not create burning. When a knife touches something, He creates cutting. It is not the knife but He who cuts. He has made the knife a means for cutting. In other words, He creates man’s optional actions for the reason (sabab) that he opts, prefers and wills these actions. However, the movements in nature do not depend on man’s option, but are created through some other causes when only Allâhu ta’âlâ wills. There is no creator besides Him, who alone creates every motion of everything, of suns, particles, drops, cells, germs and atoms, their substances and properties. Yet there is a difference between the movements of the lifeless substances and the optional, voluntary actions of man and animal: when a man or an animal opts, prefers and wills an action and if He wills, too, He makes him or it act, and He creates his or its action. Man’s action is not in man’s power. In fact, he does not even know how he acts.[5] There is no option in the movements of the lifeless. Allâhu ta’âlâ creates burning when fire touches something, and it is not through fire’s preferring or opting to burn.[6]
Man’s optional actions happen after two circumstances. First, his heart’s option, will and power are involved. For this reason, man’s actions are called kasb (acquirement), which is an attribute of man. Second, Allâhu ta’âlâ’s creation takes place. Allâhu ta’âlâ’s orders, prohibitions, rewards and tortures are all because kasb has been given to man. In the ninety-sixth âyat of the sûrat as-Sâffât, He says, “Allah created you and He created your actions.” This âyat not only shows the existence of kasb, or the heart’s option and irâdat juz’iyya (partial free will) in the actions of man and the nonexistence of any compulsion –for this reason, [actions may be attributed to man and] it may be said “man’s actions” as we say, “Ali hit and broke”– but also points out that everything is created with qadâ and qadar.
For the creation of man’s actions, first his heart has to opt and will it. Man wills actions which are within his power. This will or wish is called kasb (acquirement). The late Âmidî said that the kasb caused and had effect in the creation of actions. But it is not wrong to say that kasb does not have any effect in the creation of an optional action since the action wished by man and the one created are not different from each other. Then, man cannot do whatever he wants; things which he does not want may happen, too. If man did everything he wanted and if anything he did not wish would not happen, then he would not be a man but one who would claim divinity. Allâhu ta’âlâ pitied and favoured His human creatures and gave them power and energy only as much as they would need to observe His commands and prohibitions. For example, a person who is healthy and rich enough can perform hajj once in his life; he can fast [during the days of] one month a year when he sees the Ramadân moon in the sky; he can perform the five-times-a-day, fard salât; he who has as much money or property as the amount of nisâb can give one-fortieth of it in gold or silver to Muslims as zakât one Hijrî year after his money or property surpasses nisâb. So, man does his optional actions if he wants and he does not if he does not want to. Allâhu ta’âlâ’s greatness is realized here, too. Because the ignorant and idiots cannot comprehend the knowledge of qadâ’ and qadar, they do not believe what the scholars of Ahl as-Sunna said and doubt the power and option in man. They think that man is incapable and compelled in his optional actions. Seeing that man cannot act optionally in some cases, they speak ill of Ahl as-Sunna. This wrong conduct of theirs shows that they do have will and option.
Ability to do or not to do an action is a matter of qudra (power). Preferring, choosing to do or not to do an action is called ikhtiyâr (option). Wishing to do what is opted is called irâda (will). [The inclination] to accept something or not to disapprove of it is called ridâ’ (consent). When power and will come together where ‘will’ is effective in the occurrence of something, Khalq (Creation) takes place. If they come together without being effective, it is called kasb (acquirement). Anyone who opts is not necessarily a creator. Similarly, it is not necessary to give consent to everything willed. Allâhu ta’âlâ is called Khâliq (Cerator) and Mukhtâr (One having Option), and man is called kâsib (possessor of acquirement) and mukhtâr (one having option).
Allâhu ta’âlâ wills and creates the ’ibâdât and sins of His slaves. Yet He likes ’ibâdât and dislikes sins. Everything comes into existence by His Will and Creation. In the 102nd âyat of the sûrat al-An’âm, He declares: “There is no god but Him. He alone is the Creator of everything.”
The Mu’tazila, being unable to see the difference between will and consent, were confused and said, “Man himself creates the action he wishes.” They denied qadâ’ and qadar. The Jabriyya were altogether confused; they could not understand that there might be option without creation. Thinking that there was no option in man, they likened him to stone and wood. They said –may Allâhu ta’âlâ forfend!– “Men are not sinners. It is Allah who makes all sins committed.” If there were not will and option in men and if Allâhu ta’âlâ caused evils and sins to be done by force as the members of the Jabriyya said, there would not be any difference between the movements of a man who is thrown down from the mountain with fastened hands and feet and those of a man who walks down looking around. As a matter of fact, the former is compelled to roll down by force and the latter descends with his will and option. Those who cannot see the difference between them are the short-sighted people who also disbelieve the âyats. They consider Allâhu ta’âlâ’s orders and prohibitions unnecessary and out of place. To presume that man himself creates what he wishes, as this group called the Mu’tazila or Qadariyya believed, is to disbelieve the âyat-i-kerîma, “Allâhu ta’âlâ alone is the Creator of everything,” as well as to ascribe man a partner to Allâhu ta’âlâ.
[1] Ref: This paragraphes are quoted from the book “The Belief and Islam” , annotated translation of book I’tiqâd-nâma written by Mawlana Khalid-i Baghdadi and published in English by Hakikat Kitabevi, www.hakikatkitabevi.com.tr, Istanbul. Mawlânâ Khalid-i Baghdâdî is the great walî, the treasure of Allâhu ta’lâlâ’s blessings, superior man in every respect, the master of unattainable knowledge, the light of right, truth and religion. The author of the book I’tiqâd-nâma, Mawlânâ Diyâ’ ad-dîn Khâlid al-Baghdâdî al-’Uthmânî (b.1192, A.H./1778 in Shahrazûr in the north of Baghdad, d. 1242/1826 in Damascus, quddisa sirruh), was called al-’Uthmânî because he was a descendant of ’Uthmân Dhu’n-nûrain, the third caliph (radî-Allâhu ta’âlâ’ anh).
[2] Fire does nothing except to heat up to the ignition temperature. It is not fire that unites carbon and hydrogen with oxygen in organic substances or that supplies electron movements. Those who cannot realize the truth presume that fire does these. It is neither fire, nor oxygen, nor heat, nor the electron movement that burns or makes this reaction of burning. Only Allâhu ta’âlâ is the One who burns it. He created each of these as means for burning. A person lacking knowledge thinks that fire burns. A boy who finishes elementary school disapproves of the statement “fire burns.” He says, “The air burns,” instead. A person who finishes junior high school does not accept this. He says, “The oxygen in the air burns.” A person who finishes high school says that burning is not peculiar to oxygen, but any element attracting electron burns. A university student takes into consideration energy as well as matter. It is seen that the more a person knows the closer he gets to the inside of a matter and realizes that there are many causes behind the things regarded as causes. Prophets (’alaihimu ’ssalâm), who were in the highest degree of knowledge and science and who could see the reality of everything, and the ’ulamâ’ of Islam, who, following in their footsteps, attained drops from their oceans of knowledge, pointed out that each of the things supposed to be combustive or constructive today was an incapable and poor causal means put as an intermediary by the Real Creator.
[3] As a matter of fact, Allâhu ta’âlâ created substances to prevent the burning of fire. Chemists discover these substances.
[4] He who wants to light a lamp uses matches; he who wants to extract oil from olive uses crushing tools; he who has a headache takes an aspirin; he who wants to go to Paradise and attain infinite favours adapts himself to Islam; he who shoots himself with a pistol or who drinks poison will die; he who drinks water when in a sweat will lose his health; he who commits sins and loses his îmân will go to Hell. Whichever intermediary a person applies, he will obtain the thing for which that intermediary has been made a means. He who reads Islamic books learns Islam, likes it, and becomes a Muslim. He who lives amongst the irreligious and listens to what they say becomes ignorant of Islam. Most of those who are ignorant of Islam become disbelievers. When a person gets on a vehicle, he goes to the place it has been assigned to go.
[5] His each action is a result of so many physical and chemical events.
[6] Allâhu ta’âlâ, too, wishes and creates the good, useful wishes of those slaves of His whom He loves and pities. He does not wish or create the realization of their evil and harmful wishes. Always good, useful deeds are done by those beloved slaves. They regret having been unable to do many things, but if they thought and knew that those deeds were not created because otherwise they would have been harmful, they would not be sorry at all. Instead, they would be pleased with it and would thank Allah, who willed in eternity that He would create men’s optional, voluntary actions after their hearts’ opting and willing them; He willed it so. If He had not willed it so in eternity, He would always create even our optional actions by force, involuntarily, without our wishing them. His creating our optional actions after we wish them is because He willed it so in eternity. Then, the only dominant factor is His Will.
