What is qadar (divine decree)?

What the word means

Linguistically, qadar comes from qaddara — to arrange or measure a thing so that it comes to be in a particular way. IslamWeb explains that in the language it is a verbal noun from qadara al-shay' yaqdiruhu taqdiran, and that in the Shari'ah it means what Allah decrees and rules of affairs. So the word carries both the act of measuring and the thing measured.

Shaykh Salih Al al-Shaykh draws out what this includes: the linguistic meaning takes in the act, the will, the knowledge, and the wisdom of the One who decrees. In the Shari'ah, he says, it gathers four things — prior knowledge, prior writing, the all-embracing will of Allah, and His all-embracing creation of things.

The four levels

The scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah set out belief in qadar as four levels, and they are the backbone of the whole topic. The Permanent Committee names them directly: Allah knew all things before they existed, wrote them with Him, willed what came to be, and created what He willed to create.

Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen adds a useful distinction within the first two: the decree is both prior and accompanying. There is a decree written in eternity, and a decree that accompanies the act itself — as with the formation of a child in the womb, which has a prior decree and a decree that runs alongside its creation.

Why evil is included

Some people stumble here, feeling it unfitting to attribute the decree of evil to Allah. Shaykh Nasir al-'Aql addresses this directly: those who denied it imagined they were defending Allah's honour, but they failed to see that if evil exists it must have an originator — and to deny that Allah created it would require another creator alongside Him, which no sound mind accepts.

His answer is that Allah decreed both good and evil for a wisdom, some of it apparent and some not. The apparent part is testing:

"And We test you with evil and with good as trial; and to Us you will be returned."— Qur'an 21:35

The purpose is to distinguish the corrupt from the pure — which is why the Qur'an asks whether the Muslims should be made like the criminals, and whether one who believes is like one who is defiantly disobedient. Shaykh Nasir notes that even people who follow no religion retain traces of this discernment: if evil did not exist, good would not be distinguished, and if falsehood did not exist, truth would not be distinguished.

Qadar is not compulsion

The most common confusion is that belief in qadar means a person has no real choice. Shaykh Ibn 'Uthaymeen sets out the three positions people have taken, and the middle path between them.

• The Jabriyyah affirmed Allah's decree but went to excess, stripping the servant of choice and power entirely — so that falling from a roof deliberately and being thrown from it would be the same.
• The Qadariyyah affirmed the servant's choice and power but went to excess, denying that Allah has any will or creative act in the servant's deed — and the most extreme of them denied His knowledge of it beforehand.
• Ahl al-Sunnah affirm both: the servant genuinely acts, chooses and is held accountable, and Allah's knowledge, will and creation encompass all of it.

Ibn 'Uthaymeen shows how the verses the Jabriyyah used actually testify against them. When Allah says He created you and what you do, He has attributed the deed to you — and if you were compelled, rewarding or punishing you for it would be meaningless. And when the idolaters argued that had Allah willed they would not have associated partners with Him, Allah called them liars in the very same verse. Their excuse was rejected, not accepted.

He concludes that the doctrine of compulsion is false by the Book, the Sunnah, reason, sense and the consensus of the Salaf — and that no one who truly knows Allah's decree and the demands of His wisdom and mercy would hold it.

The heart of the matter

Imam Ahmad was asked about qadar and gave an answer the scholars treasured. Ibn al-Qayyim put it in verse:

"The reality of qadar, over which people are bewildered, is the power of the Most Merciful."— Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Qasidah al-Kafiyah al-Shafiyah, quoted in Ghayat al-Murid

Ibn 'Abd al-'Aziz al-'Aql notes that Ibn 'Aqil approved this answer from Ahmad when it was related from him. The point is that qadar is not a blind mechanism standing over Allah — it is His power and decree.

This is why the scholars call it a secret. Al-Tuwayjri writes that qadar is Allah's secret in His creation: no angel brought near has looked into it, nor any prophet sent. We come to know a decree after it happens, not before.

What it asks of you

Belief in qadar is not a puzzle to solve but a stance to live from. 'Ubadah ibn al-Samit رضي الله عنه said to his son:

"O my son, you will never taste the reality of faith until you know that what befell you was not going to miss you, and what missed you was not going to befall you."— Sunan Abi Dawud 4700

The Permanent Committee cites the Prophet's ﷺ answer when Jibril asked him about faith, which includes belief in the divine decree, its good and its evil — and directs the reader to Ibn Taymiyyah's al-'Aqidah al-Wasitiyyah for a fuller treatment.

Key takeaways

• Qadar is four things together: Allah's prior knowledge, His writing in the Preserved Tablet, His will, and His creation — and faith is not complete without all four.
• It is Allah's own power, not a force beside Him — Imam Ahmad's answer, "qadar is the power of the Most Merciful," is the clearest way to hold it.
• Evil is included in the decree for a wisdom, part of it testing — to distinguish the corrupt from the pure.
• It does not remove your choice. The Jabriyyah and the Qadariyyah both erred by excess; Ahl al-Sunnah affirm Allah's decree and the servant's real action together.
• Its fruit is tranquillity: what reached you was never going to miss you, and what missed you was never going to reach you.

Further reading

• Ibn Taymiyyah, al-'Aqidah al-Wasitiyyah
• Ibn al-Qayyim, al-Qasidah al-Kafiyah al-Shafiyah

And Allah knows best.