QADR- The Predestination Part -1

Today we are going to talk about the Qadr of Allah. So before we get started I want you to be ready because may be you will hear somethings today that might shock you and make you wake up. Well I am gonna translate the word Qadr as best as I can and tell you that its something similar to destiny or predestination. It means that everything is already planned. Everything is already predefined. It's all written.
There is nothing you can do except go through the motions that are planned for you.Now right away some folks say ok if it's already written why should we bother. And that's actually a good question does Islam insist on this Qadr this predestination. What about other religions?
Have you looked at other religion to what they say about everything is in the control of god? Is there anything can happen upon which god has no control over?

Because if you say yes then it is not the god of Islam. Because Allah always has full and complete control over everything. Even some muslims will say well wait a minute doesn't Allah say in the Qur'an the verse in Surah Baqarah.  "There is no compulsion in religion" chapter 2 verse 256.

And if that's the case then how could I be forced by God to do something when you just got through saying I would not be forced. Also another thing that come up instantly from anybody would be well. So if is it why would some people will enter paradise and why some will go to hell. If god is planned all this then why punish us? What did we do?
And some people might say look everything is written for me. So I can go out and can do anything bad. I can cheat, I can smoke, I can drink or whatever. Because they will say everything is written for me I can't do anything for it.

So what is the validity of this argument think about it. Is there such a thing as predestination?
Is there such a thing that only god has control over and if it is does he have a plan and that plan is in effect?
So whatever I am doing is part of a plan? or do I have free will? What is the free will?
Well free will basically means that you have the will to choose but let us go through and take a look that Islam insist that yyou have to believe in this Qadr or predestination of Allah.

There is a beautiful hadith about Muhammad(pbuh). That one day while he was among his companions.He told them ask me some questions. Ask me any questions about Islam go ahead and they were too shy he was a prophet after all. Then Allah sent somebody and a man came up out of the desert and he had no traces of travel on him. His clothes were exceedingly white and there was no dust or dirt on him. He went right upto the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and he squatted down and he put his knees to his knees and he puts his hands on his thighs looked him straight in the eye he said.
"What is Imaan"

Imaan in Arabic means faith,belief system. Muhammad(pbuh) responded its to believe in Allah, his angels, his books, his messengers, the hereafter, and the qadr.
And this hadith continues and talks about some other things also but I want explain here is the qadr. At the end of the hadith it says that the prophet Muhammad (pbuh) asked Umar (ra) go find this man. Go bring him to me and Umar came back and said said I cannot find him he just disappeared.

You know who he was? He was actually the angel gabriel (Jibreel) (AS). He came to teach you your religion. So it is really a very important part of Islam to believe in this Qadr of Allah. But how do we understand it? First of all we are human and we can't think like god but we can take information from him and he is giving us guidance in the qur'an and in the hadith that comes with Muhammad (saw) we have to read and understand it.

Now prophet Muhammad told us the first thing that Allah created was a pen and then he ordered the pen to write and the pen wrote everything that is going to happen. Then the pen laid down the ink is dried and in this condition  Allah now creates everything. He never creates anything until after it was all written to start with. This is what we know in Islam. Again, question comes to mind well, its already written then why go through it? Again the creation of everything that exist Allah brings things in stages or step by step.

Allah has a sunnah and its called sunnatullah, The way he does things in stages. He first created the heavens and the earth. He told us that he created everything in six periods of time called ayyum that we often refer to as a day. But those periods don't have necessarily to be 24 hours period their stages, Allah brought things in stages and likewise he broughtthe human being and gave them stages of development. He tells us about the stages and then he says he has perfected our way.

So that all the humankind and the jinn can worship him the wa he deserve to be worshipped without partners. And how does that apply to the qadr though well Allah tells us we're inside the backbone of Adam (AS) and he pulled us out and he asked us am I not our lord? and we all said yes. And then he took those souls and put them back into Adam(AS) and he erased that from our memory.We don't remember this incident.
But we were created to forget and in Arabic language humans are called "Insaan" from the same root as the word to forget "Nasia" those who are created to forget and we forgot about the meeting with our lord.

And we also forgot that one day we are going to meet him again. As he tells in the Qur'an
"Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajioon" No doubt that we belong to Allah and we have to go back to him.
And that's also a part of Qadr(predestination). I will continue from here in my next blog.
Jazakallahu khair.