Sunday, October 21, 2012

Predestination



Predestination is a big issue within Islam. Shortly after Muhammad’s death there was a lot of disagreement as to whether or not Allah was responsible for all human action or whether it was free will that decides the future actions.

The group of Muslims who were very concrete that Allah decides everything was called the Jabrites and those who thought free will was to blame were the Qadarite theologians. The issue with the Qadarite belief was that it put humans on the same level as Allah by saying that humans can become the creator of actions this contradicts a core Islamic belief that only Allah can be the creator.

And so we had a third group enter the discussions called the Ash’arites. The Ash’arites took the middle line saying that Allah is the only creator of actions but he gives humans the want and will to complete his wishes. This is the belief now accepted by most Muslims.

As a whole predestination is the belief that Allah knows everything in the universe and nothing happens without him knowing about it.

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