Does
Taqdir Imply
Predestination?
M. A. Malek
and Mrs. Sajeda
Malek
The word taqdir in the Qur’an has come to mean,
for many Muslims and Orientalists,
the "absolute decree of good and evil by God", meaning that God has
preordained all our acts and choices, and therefore we are not responsible for
our actions. To dispel this misunderstanding, it is necessary to understand the
correct meaning of the Arabic words qadar
and taqdir.
For example, the Qur’an
speaks of a taqdir for each and
everything that has been created: "Glorify the name of thy lord, the most
high, who creates, then makes complete, and Who measures ('qaddara' from taqdir),
then guides"(87:1-3). "Who created and then ordained for it a measure
(taqdir)"(25:2).
"Surely We
have created everything according to a measure (qadar)"(54:49).
"And the sun moves to its destination. That is the ordinance (taqdir) of the Mighty, the Knowing. And
the moon, We
have ordained ('qaddarna' from taqdir) for its stages" (36:38,
39).1
All these verses go
to show that taqdir, in the
language of the Qur'an, is the universal law of God, operating as much in the
case of man as in the rest of nature: the law extending to the sun, the moon,
the stars, the earth and the heavens, and all that exists in them. This
universal law is fully explained in two short verses already quoted: "Who
creates, then makes complete, and Who measures, then guides"(87:1-3).
Four things are mentioned regarding every object of creation, including man:
its creation (khalaq), its
completion (taswiya), its
measure (taqdir), and its
guidance to its goal (hidaya). The law of
life, as witnessed in nature, is exactly the law described here. Everything is
created so as to finally attain its completion, the completion being brought
about according to a law or measure within which everything works by Divine
guidance.
Thus the taqdir of a thing is the law or the
measure of its growth and development and the taqdir
of a man is
not different in nature from the taqdir
of other things.2
The misinterpretation
of taqdir as
'predestination' is due to the misunderstanding of the nature of good and evil.
However, the following verses and the associated commentary can shed clearer
light on this.3
(4:78) [....] Yet,
when a good thing happens to them, some people say, "This is from
God," whereas when evil befalls them, they say, "This is from thee (O
fellow-man)!"92 Say: All is from God." What, then, is
amiss with these people that they are in no wise near to grasping the truth of
what they are told?93
(4:79) Whatever
good happens to thee is from God; and whatever evil befalls thee is from
thyself.94
(2:6-7) Behold,
as for those who are bent on denying the truth – it is all one to them whether
thou warnest
them or does not warn them: they will not believe. God has sealed their hearts
and their hearing, and over their eyes is a veil:7 and
awesome suffering awaits them.
92. i.e., they do not
realize that the evil happening may possibly be a consequence of their own
actions or their own choice between several courses open to them, but are prone
to attribute it to others.
93. Lit.,
"something [which they are] told" -- i.e., a truth which their own
reason as well as the teachings of all the prophets should have made obvious to
them.
94. There is no
contradiction between this statement and the preceding one that "All is
from God". In the world-view of the Qur"an, God is the
ultimate source of all happening: consequently, all good that comes to man and
evil that befalls him flows, in the last resort, from God's will.
However, not
everything that man regards as "evil fortune" is really, in its final
effect, evil -- for, "it may well be that you hate a thing the while it is
good for you, and it may well be that you love a thing the while it is bad for
you: God knows, whereas you do not know"(2:216). Thus, many an apparent
"evil" may sometimes be more than a trial and a God-willed means of
spiritual growth through suffering, and need not necessarily be the result of
wrong choice or wrong deed on the part of the person thus afflicted. It is,
therefore, obvious that the "evil" or "evil fortune" of
which this verse speaks of has a restricted connotation, in as much it refers
to evil in the moral sense of the word: that is to say, to suffering resulting
from the actions or the behavior of the person concerned, and this is in
accordance with the natural law of cause and effect which God has decreed for
all His creation, which the Qur"an
describes as "the way of God" (sunnat Allah). For all such suffering man has
only himself to blame, since "God does not wrong anyone by as much as at
atom's weight"(4:40).
A reference to the
natural law instituted by God, whereby a person who persistently adheres to
false beliefs and refuses to listen to the voice of truth gradually loses the
ability to perceive the truth, "so that finally, as it were, a seal is set
upon his heart"(Raghib).
Since it is God who has instituted all laws of nature -- which, in their
aggregate, are called sunnat Allah (the way of God) -- this sealing
is attributed to Him: but it is a consequence of man's free choice and not an
act of "predestination". Similarly, the suffering which, in the life
to come, is in store for those who during their life in this world have
willfully remained deaf and blind to the truth, is a natural consequence of
their free choice -- just as happiness in the life to come is the natural
consequence of man's endeavor to attain to righteousness and inner
illumination. It is in this sense that the Qur’anic references to
God's "reward" and "punishment" must be understood.
The Qur'an,
therefore, has not dealt with the question of the creation of good and evil at
all. It speaks of the creation of heavens and earth and all that is in them; it
speaks of the creation of man; it speaks of endowing him with certain faculties
and granting him certain powers; it tells us that he can use these powers and
faculties within certain limitations -- and the limitations of each kind are
its taqdir. But in the
Qur'an, there is no mention of a taqdir
to mean either the creation of good and evil deeds, or an absolute decree of
good and evil by God.4
It may, however, be
added that God is recognized by the Qur'an as the first and the ultimate cause
of all things; but this does not mean that He is the Creator of the deeds of
man. He has, of course, created man; He has also created the circumstances
under which he lives and acts; but He has endowed man with a discretion to
choose how to act, which he can exercise under certain limitations, just as all
his other powers and faculties are exercised under certain limitations and only
in accordance with certain laws.5
This is not to claim
that God has subjected the universe to a certain scientific laws and abandoned
it to let it run its course. No reader of the Qur'an gets this impression. In
the Qur'an, God is al Rabb:
the Sustainer, Cherisher, Regulator, and Governor of all. He is the omnipresent
source of harmony and balance of nature. His influence and sway over creation
is continuous and pervading. However, none of this conflicts with the
fact that we are empowered to make moral decisions and to carry them out.6
The
Qur'an talks about reward and punishment based on human choices and human free
will.
If the individual is not free to choose between good and evil (of which the
Qur'an gives ample evidence and guidance) then the question of reward and
punishment becomes absurd.
References
2. Ibid., p 236-237.
3. The Message of the
Qur'an, by Muhammad Asad.
Published by
Dar AI-Andalus, Gibralter. p. 119.
4. The Religion of Islam,
by Maulana
Muhammad Ail M.A., LLB.
Published by National Publication and Printing House U.A.R Based chapter 7, p
238
5. Ibid., p 238-739
6. Even Angels Ask,
by Dr. Jeffrey Lang, Amana Publications,
Posted
January 15, 2007. This article was published in the October-December 2006
issue of "The Message," a United Islamic Association (UIA)
publication,