Destiny and the Will of Allāh

All praise is due to Allāh. May Allāh raise the rank of Prophet Muḥammad ﷺ and protect his nation from that which he feared for them.

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The Meaning of Destiny

Destiny is Allāh’s management of things in a way that complies with His eternal knowledge and His eternal will. He brings things into existence at the time that He knew they would exist. Included in that is the voluntary deed of the slave, whether good or evil.

The proof that destiny is confirmed is the saying of the Messenger of Allāh ﷺ to Jibrīl when Jibrīl asked him about īmān:

الإِيمانُ أنْ تُؤْمِنَ بِاللهِ وَمَلائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ وَاليَومِ الآخِرِ وَتُؤمِنَ بِالقَدَرِ خَيرِهِ وَشَرّهِ

Īmān is to believe in Allāh, and His angels, and His books, and His Messengers, and the Last Day, and to believe in destiny, its good and its evil. [Muslim]

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The Will of Allāh Encompasses Everything

Allāh has ordained the creations, and among them are the good and the evil. All of them exist by the eternal destining of Allāh. Nothing takes place in the world except by His will, and nothing will hit the slave, whether good or evil, health or sickness, poverty or richness, except by the will of Allāh.

The Prophet ﷺ taught one of his daughters to say:

مَا شَاءَ اللهُ كَانَ وَمَا لم يَشَأْ لم يَكُن

Whatever Allāh willed to be shall be, and whatever Allāh did not will to be shall not be. [Abū Dāwūd]

Allāh the Exalted said:

وَمَا تَشَاءُونَ إِلَّا أَن يَشَاءَ اللَّهُ

You do not will unless Allāh wills. [Sūrat al-Takwīr, 29]

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Destiny Does Not Remove Accountability

The slaves are driven to do the deeds that occur from them by their choice, not by compulsion or coercion. Allāh the Exalted said:

لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ

For every soul is what it acquired, and against it is what it acquired. [Sūrat al-Baqarah, 286]

The slave is an acquirer of his deed. Allāh is the Creator of the deed of the slave. Whatever Allāh knew would occur, He willed for it to occur. Whatever He knew would not be, He did not will for it to be.

Our master ʿAliyy said:

“Certainly the īmān will not be pure in the heart of one of you until he is absolutely certain that whatever hit him was not going to miss him, and whatever missed him was not going to hit him, and he confesses about destiny completely.”

This was narrated by Al-Bayhaqiyy.

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Guidance is of Two Types

Guidance is of two types. The first is clarifying the truth and calling to it, and establishing the evidence for it. According to this meaning, it is valid to attribute guidance to the Messengers and to everyone who calls to the Religion of Allāh. Allāh the Exalted said about His Messenger Muḥammad ﷺ:

وَإِنَّكَ لَتَهْدِي إِلَىٰ صِرَاطٍ مُّسْتَقِيمٍ

Certainly you surely guide to a straight path. [Sūrat al-Shūrā, 52]

The second type of guidance is Allāh’s guidance of His slaves, meaning creating the guidance within their hearts. Allāh the Exalted said:

فَمَن يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَن يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ وَمَن يُرِدْ أَن يُضِلَّهُ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا

Whomever Allāh willed to guide, He expands his chest to Islām, and whomever Allāh willed to misguide, He makes his chest tight. [Sūrat al-Anʿām, 125]

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The Destining of Allāh Does Not Change

The will of Allāh and His destining do not change, because changing is impossible to attribute to Allāh. His eternal predestining is not changed by anything, neither the supplication of the one who supplicates, nor the charity of the one who gives charity, nor the prayer of the one who prays.

Allāh the Exalted said:

يَمْحُو اللَّهُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَيُثْبِتُ وَعِندَهُ أُمُّ الْكِتَابِ

Allāh erases whatever He willed, and He confirms whatever He willed, and to Him belongs the Guarded Tablet. [Sūrat al-Raʿd, 39]

This does not mean the erasing and confirmation is related to the preordainment of Allāh itself. Rather what is erased and confirmed is what is written in the books of the angels, which record conditional destiny. The Guarded Tablet contains what will actually happen between those two matters, and that does not change.

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Dividing the Matters into Four Categories

All matters are of four categories.

The first is something that Allāh willed and ordered for it to be done, and that is the belief of the believers and the obedience of the obedient.

The second is something that Allāh willed but did not order for it to be done, and that is the sin of the sinners and the blasphemy of the blasphemers. Allāh the Exalted said:

وَلَا يَرْضَىٰ لِعِبَادِهِ الْكُفْرَ

He does not accept blasphemy for His slaves. [Sūrat al-Zumar, 7]

The third is a matter Allāh did not will for, but He did order for it to be done, such as belief in reference to the blasphemers that Allāh knew would die on blasphemy. They were ordered with belief, but He did not will that for them.

The fourth is a matter that He did not will and He did not order, such as blasphemy in reference to the Prophets and the angels.

Allāh the Exalted said:

لَا يُسْأَلُ عَمَّا يَفْعَلُ وَهُمْ يُسْأَلُونَ

He is not asked about what He does, they are asked. [Sūrat al-Anbiyāʾ, 23]

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The Deniers of Destiny

The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ dispraised the deniers of destiny. Among them are those who said that the slave is in charge of all of his voluntary deeds, and among them are those who said that he is the creator of evil but not the good. Both factions are blasphemers.

The Messenger of Allāh ﷺ said:

القَدَرِيَّةُ مَجُوسُ هَذِهِ الأُمَّةِ

The Qadariyyah are the Majūs of this nation. [Abū Dāwūd]

And in one narration:

لِكُلّ أمَّةٍ مَجُوسٌ، ومَجُوسُ هذِهِ الأُمَّةِ الذينَ يَقُولونَ لا قَدَرَ

Every nation had its Majūs, and the Majūs of this nation are those who say there is no destiny. [Abū Dāwūd]

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Allāh’s Justice and Generosity

Know that if Allāh tortured the sinner, that is by His justice without any injustice. If He gave reward to the obedient, that is from His generosity with no obligation upon Him. Injustice is only conceived to occur from someone who has a commander and a prohibitor. Allāh has no commander and no prohibitor. He does in His dominion as He wills, because He is the Creator of all things and their Owner.

Al-Bayhaqiyy narrated from al-Shāfiʿiyy that he said when asked about destiny:

مَا شِئتَ كانَ وإن لم أَشَأ وما شِئت إن لم تَشَأ لم يَكُن خَلَقتَ العِبادَ على ما عَلمِت ففي العلمِ يجري الفَتَى والـمُسِن

O Allāh, whatever You willed was, even if I did not will. And whatever I willed, if You did not will, then it will not be. You created the slaves according to what You knew, and according to that knowledge the young person and the old person will act.

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This article is part of IKF’s Ilm al-Aqīdah series, drawn from the works of the scholars of Ahlus-Sunnah wal-Jamāʿah.