The predestination in Islam is one of the issues on which the building of faith is built. Since this is a fairly young religion, all written primary sources are available for numerous interpretations and interpretations. This, in turn, led to the emergence of lengthy discussions among various movements and schools, in particular about the relationship between Islam (religion) and iman (faith). The works of medieval scholastics were largely unsystematic, fragmented, and served as the basis for many controversies and disputes.
One of the pillars is faith in predestination. In Islam, this has also always been the subject of numerous discussions over the centuries. Directly in the Qur'an regarding this it is said:
Allah created you and what you do.
Sura 37 “Standing in a row,” ayah 96
The text of the “hadith Djibril”, the authorship of which is attributed to one of the associates of Muhammad, Ibn Umar, gives such a definition of faith (iman) in general:
The essence of faith is that you believe in Allah, and in His angels, and in His Scriptures, and in His messengers, and on the Last Day, and (also) that you believe in the predestination of both good and bad .
However, many movements do not recognize the authority of the hadith of Ibn Umar, and the iman is accepted in the content, as it is given in the text of the Qur'an, that is, without the meaning of the words "in the predestination of both good and bad."
Therefore, the belief in Islam in predestination as such and in the predestination of the evil is a matter of debate and debate.
Areas of religious knowledge in Islam
Without going into details regarding the causes of political differences between different religious movements and groups, it is necessary to separate methodological details from politics. Depending on the approaches to cognition in general and cognition in Islam of predestination in particular, its classical movements had three main forms of expression:
- Kalam (from Arabic: “word”, “speech”) - in the general sense, this was the name of all philosophical and theological works of scholars, with the aim of using the available arguments of reason to give the dogmas of Islam a clear interpretation.
- Salafiya (from Arabic: “ancestors”, “predecessors”) - a direction that united around the recognition of the most important way of life and faith of the early Muslim community, focused on the righteous ancestors led by a prophet. Moreover, all subsequent interpretations and philosophical and theological reasonings were qualified as a departure from the original dogmas.
- Sufism (from the Arabic. “Suf” - “wool”) is an esoteric-mystical movement that laid the key to the spiritual path, asceticism, and serving as the foundation of faith and a righteous life.
Kalamist predestination dilemmas
The first Kalamist scholars too literally understood sacred texts. They came to the problem of interpreting belief in the predestination of evil as a means of substantiating the legitimacy of its commission as such. Indeed, in this understanding, a person is not responsible for his actions. In this regard, medieval Islamic scholastics were divided into three main branches, representatives of each of which differently saw human freedom of will in the context of predestination:
- The jabrists believed that only Allah acts in the universe. All actions taking place in the world, including the source of which is a person, are known to Allah in advance and predetermined by him. To an extreme degree of absurdity, such an opinion led to the justification of the evil done by man, his predetermination.
- The kadarites claimed that a person has free will to perform any actions without interference from Allah. Allah does not take part in this, however, he learns about the acts after their commission. Man in the concept of cadarites is a completely independent creator of his actions. Such a doctrine led away from the initial tenets of the faith about the universality and omnipotence of Allah, causing heated debate.
- After the 10th century, the Asharite movement became dominant among the Kalamist scholars, which was close to the Orthodox Sunnis, who rejected the ideas of both the Djabrits and the Kadarites, trying to find a middle ground between them. The Asharites developed the concept of “kasbah” (Arabic. “Appropriation”, “acquisition”), according to which a person, being in the will of Allah, nevertheless has the ability to acquire by his actions a certain act that has a well-deserved mark as righteous or evil.
Ways to solve the dilemma in Salafism
Feeling the need to return to their origins, the adherents of classical approaches and Salafism saw predestination in Islam in their own way. One of the 12th-century Salafist authors, widely known for his work for modern scholars, Ibn Taymiyyah, criticizing the asharites, sought to return to a common moral character, the spirit of the Qur'an and Sunnah. In his view, it was erroneous to deny the power of the will of Allah, including with regard to man and his actions, as well as the denial of the free will of man, which gives rise to personal responsibility. He saw the solution to the dilemma in assigning divine omnipotence in relation to man to the past, and observing the precepts of the Koran to his future.
Sufism
21st Century Persian Sufi Al-Khujwiri, notes:
Religion has a trunk and branches. Its trunk is confirmation in the heart, and the branches are following (Divine) directions.
Al-Khujwiri, “Disclosure of the hidden behind the veil”
For a Sufi mystic, Islam itself is a predestination of fate. He follows the heart, goes along the thin edge of the multiplicity of nafs (Arabic. “Ego”) to the unity of spirit. The Sufi does not have a thought about whether this path is predetermined in advance, since his faith is on a different plane. His mind is subordinate, calm by Allah - he is one with Him, dissolved in Him. He believes in predestination as if he himself were predestination. The Sufi sees Allah in everything. The Sufi says: “La illah illa'llah hu,” “There is no other reality besides the reality of Allah, and there is no god but Allah.” In this approach, ichsan (Arabic. “Perfect action”) comes first manifestation of iman.
The night of predestination
There is also a very important spiritual tradition that Islam has revealed to the whole world - “The Night of Predestination”.
The night of predestination is better than a thousand months. On this night, angels and Jibril descend from the permission of Allah according to all His commands.
Quran, Surah 97 "Predestination"
It is believed that the first suras of the Qur'an were told to the Prophet Muhammad on the night of predestination (Arab “Al-Qadr”). There is no unequivocal understanding of its exact date; every year the festival is celebrated by Muslims on one of the last ten days of the month of Ramadan. The onset of al-Qadr is determined by some signs described in the hadiths; therefore, all ten last nights of the month of Ramadan are sacred for Muslims.
There is also an opinion that “The Night of Predestination” is a moment in the life of every believer when his faith passes a thorough test of perseverance and sincerity in the same way as the faith of the Prophet Muhammad was tested at one time. That is precisely why there is no concrete indication of its date.
Perhaps it was through the “Night of Predestination,” when a person determines by his choice who he will follow, angels, or shaitans, did the Lord decide to combine opposing doctrines and worlds in order to establish a way of his omnipotent influence on a person’s free will?