Belief in the Qadar (Divine Decree)   

Zaid ibn Thaabit (Radia-Allaahu ‘anhu) narrated that the Prophet (Salla-Allaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) said: “…If you had the like of (Mount) Uhud in gold, and you spent it in the way of Allaah, Allaah would not accept it from you until you believe in the Qadar (Divine Decree). You should know that what has afflicted you, was not to miss you, and what has missed you was not to afflict you. You should also know that if you die on other than this (i.e. while you do not believe in the Divine Decree), you will be one of the denizens of Hell-Fire.” [Reported by Ahmad and authenticated by al-Albaani]

The believer in al-Qadar should submit and believe in the following things:

1. Allaah’s Knowledge precedes all things.
2. His writing it (the Qadar) in the Preserved Tablet (al-Lawh al-Mahfoodh).
3.  The comprehensiveness of His Will (everything occurs by Allaah’s Will).
4. His creating all things in particular and the characteristics that they have. From this is the creation of the deeds of the slaves. This is according to His Statement in Surat az-Zumar (39:62):

“Allaah is the Creator of everything.”

This includes the creatures and their actions.

5.  Allaah has given the human being the choice and the ability to take his own action.

This is the Aqeedah (creed) of Ahlus-Sunnah wal Jama’ah.

However, people have deviated into two main sects regarding the Qadar:

1. Al-Jabriyyah claim that human beings have been completely deprived of the freedom of action, i.e. they are compelled, and overburdening occurs with that.

In fact this belief is comprised of bad thoughts about Allaah and that Allaah is unjust to His servants for punishing them for matters in which they have no choice. Moreover, they claim that Allaah rewards without any action from the slave, which implies negation of Allaah’s Wisdom in His Commands.

2.  Al-Qadariyyah deny al-Qadar and claim that events are not predestined. They also claim that the slave has complete freedom to                do actions in Allaah’s dominion independent of Allaah’s Will, i.e. they deny Allaah’s Omnipotence and comprehensive             Knowledge of what occurs of events (prior to their occurrence).