:salam2: beloved sisters and brothers
I hope this reaches you in the best of health/imaan
I have a question and it's a doubt question which I would rather not ask, but since I need to know and clear this doubt I am asking. I hope you understand where I am comming from So, you guys know that sometimes when thinking you have some weird questions that are thrown at you from Shaitan. I had those and I always said "amantu biAllah, wamaLaaikatuhu wakutubahu, warasoolahu wal yamool akhir, then authobiAllah" but this question has bugged be loads and I keep thinking about what the answer is, so iam asking. Gosh, I know what you're thinking, I am going to get to the point inshaAllah Ok, my question is since Allah has decreed whether we're going to Jannah or Jahanam, how come we can say we have freedom of choice?? obviously, the Qur'an has shown us both ways YET only Allah can guide whome He SWA wills, and in that case I am thinking "well, we dont have freedom of choice since He SWT is choosing for us:astag:" I know this is bad to think, but walahi I cannot think about other staff, this in my mind. I am just asking to gain knowledge, to know something I dont know so I can increase my understanding. please shed some light on this for me
Allah hafiz now and always
:salam2:
Salaam Alaikum sister,
You are not alone in having such thoughts so do not worry yourself needlessly. The issue of Qadr is, if i am honest, quite complicated. I first came across the issue in depth during my university studies and since then had planned to some research on the subject - which i have sadly postponed now!
Anyway, this question has come up on many forums, and i've responded to it on those occasions. I have copied it here for your benefit, inshaAllah.
Al salam alykom wa ra7mat allah wa barakto 3alykom gami3an,
Im confused about destiny,if our destiny is written so why we are given the ability to choose and if we are going to see what is written for us in our destiny so why we do el istikhara prayer .ALLAH sob7anaho wa ta3ala knows what we are going to do in our life time so what are we doing on earth???
A very good and valid question - may Allah reward you.
I'm currently working on a thesis on this very topic and inshaAllah I will share with you some of my thoughts.
Bismillah -
Your question about destiny is in essence a question about the supposedly irreconcilable contradictions between ‘pre-destination’ (qadr) and ‘free will’ (freedom to choose).
Philosophers and Scholars alike have dwelled on the matter for centuries and indeed continue to do so. The issue of pre-destination lies at the heart of many questions about Islam, God, Faith - and indeed any religion which purports the idea of God having knowledge of all things - questions such as 'Evil', 'Suffering', 'Death' and of course all those mentioned above by our honourable friends.
The essence of the problem was summarised well once by a fellow student during a lecture: "If God knows about it, then you have no choice".
I pondered about his comment for quite some time, and eventually realised that there was great wisdom in what he had said. He is of course incorrect, but the wisdom was in his reference to God's knowledge.
Allah says in the Qur’an: “Wahowal ‘Alim Al-Hakim” – And he is the Most Knowledgeable, Most Wise.
Muslims – and generally speaking, Christians and Jews (and other monotheistic religions) – understand from this that Allah has absolute knowledge of all things (including things that WILL OCCUR). The question of destiny (as our member mentions above), freedom of will, and similar matters all arise from the belief (particularly Muslim) that such knowledge was written down in a book - Al Lawhul Mahfuzh.
This ‘writing down’ of things is known as Qadr – of course there are other ways of referring to it – in other words, Allah KNEW everything that will occur and for a reason ultimately only known to him, wrote it all in a book. This seems all simple, but why do many people find it so difficult and confusing?
The difficulty often occurs because we do not clearly comprehend the implication of what it means when we say that Allah has knowledge of all things. When it is said that ‘Allah is all knowing’ it is meant in the MOST ABSOLUTE SENSE. The reader might say that there is nothing new here and it fails to answer the member’s question. Indeed, there is nothing new here, but the question is answered. The difficulty of comprehension is due to not having tangible references for statements such as ‘Allah is all knowing’. It is bit like quantifying ‘infinity’ (an obvious contradiction) in mathematics. Mathematicians have gotten around the problem by removing any frame of reference and simply referring only to itself. To provide another example, in a hadith, although it is weak, the Prophet (PBUH) mentions that a time will come when we will travel in the sky on a metal donkey. Simplistic readers of the hadith will either say such a thing has not happened or that the Prophet was incorrect. A flying metal donkey does not make any sense to us, but will it have made sense to the Prophet’s companions if he had said that a time will come when we will ride on a British Airways plane travelling at over 600 MPH? Of course it wouldn’t, simply because they have no reference for British Airways or MPH. Thus, in retrospective we say that the people understood it as a ‘flying form of transport’ (the donkey representing the transport). The point here is that a frame of reference is crucial in comprehending things that are intangible or outside our immediate access. So what is the frame of reference that may allow us to comprehend the implications when we say that ‘Allah is All Knowing’?
Time!
Time, as the majority of physicists agree, is a real phenomenon and not simply a model for referencing. The Prophet (pbuh) mentions in a hadith that ‘Allah is the owner of time’ – in other words that He has created it. Such is the reason why the hereafter is eternal since time will seize to exist. It is also for such reasons that the question of what was before God, as physicists even agree, is illogical.
Time, however, does not apply to Allah – He is above its limitations. And here lies the importance of the matter: Since Time is not applicable to Allah, for Him (‘Azza Wa-Jall) the past, present and future is in that sense all one and the same. Suppose Allah had (!) not written the events down and instead presented it to us after we die – will it make any difference to what it is now? Think of the time line, and the book (qadr) either at the beginning or end of it – it is the same for Allah!
So how does this answer the question of the honourable member?
Well, it is answered in two ways:
Firstly, since Allah is all knowing He has and had absolute knowledge of all that you do and will do and has written it down. This does not take away you freedom of will since you do not KNOW what is written down. To give an example, consider two very close friends. One knows the other so well that he can with great confidence determine what the other will do in a given situation. Now, suppose the two were placed each in a room. One was asked to choose between two colours. The other had written down what his friend will choose. The friend, who was asked to make the choice, was aware that the other had written his choice down. Will it be difficult to believe that the friend writing the other’s choice will be correct, in consideration of the fact that he knows his friend SO well? And further, will the knowledge that his friend has written down his choice in any way remove his freedom to choose the colour? Now multiply the knowledge of his friend by infinity. Absolute knowledge! That is Allah.
Allah’s knowledge of what you do and will do does not remove your freedom to choose. Ask yourself: you KNOW that Allah has written whether or not you will read this thread. Has that in anyway taken away your freedom to choose to read this thread or not. Can you make the choice? Yes, of course you can, but the choice you make is the one that was written down.
Secondly, it does not make any difference to Allah (in the context of this topic) whether your actions are done or remain yet undone. Words such has done, do, happen, happened, and others are all temporal references, and since Allah is not limited by time, for Him these words are all one and the same. The problem for us is that we find it difficult to remove such temporal references from our model of thinking – and it is natural, since we are bound by its created phenomena.
The noble sister’s question, ‘Allah knows what we will do in our lifetime, so what are we doing on earth’ is different to the first part of her query, but is not unrelated to the issues mentioned above. Consider that we didn’t spend any time here on earth and Allah rewarded or punished us for our actions, will it not be said: ‘But I didn’t do them’.
And Allah Knows Best.
Was-Salam
Please Note: The above response is part of a thesis which i have since postponed. If you believe it has errors in understanding and inference, please respond and inshaAllah i will investigate it as part of the research.
