Advice of Scholars - TO BELIEVE IN QADAR

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.