Islamiyat · May / June 2025 · Paper 21 · Question 4

Write a detailed account of Muslim belief in predestination and decree. Use AO1 Levels of Response.

Predestination is the idea that God has command over all creation, and Muslims believe that although human beings have free will to make their own choices, God is aware of the choices that will be made.

Muslims believe that everything good or bad, all moments of happiness or sorrow, pleasure or pain, success or failure, come from God alone. The reason Muslims believe in this is because the Qur’an has explicitly told us to believe in Qadr.

Muslims believe that God has recorded everything that will occur until the Day of Judgment in the Preserved Tablet (al-Lawh al-Mahfuz). The life spans of all human beings are written and the amount of sustenance they will receive are all recorded before their birth.

In Islamic belief every human act both in material and spiritual life is predestined. However, this belief does not discount the principle of man’s moral freedom and responsibility. All is known by God, but freedom is also granted. Unlike angels, humans have free will but need to understand that God knows the choices that will be made by each person because He is all knowing.

God holds people accountable for what they have done within their capability, but not what they cannot do as is it said: “Allah does not burden a soul with more than it can bear.” Belief in Qadr implies the acceptance of God being kulle shayin-Qadeer (Allah having command over all creation).

God knows what the creatures will do, encompassing everything by His knowledge. Whoever refuses this denies God’s perfection, because the opposite of knowledge is either ignorance or forgetfulness. Both are deficiencies of which God is free.

How does belief in predestination strengthen a Muslim’s belief in God?

Use AO2 Levels of Response.

Answers may include some of the following ideas, but all valid material must be credited.

Belief in divine decree strengthens one’s belief in God. Muslims by this belief realise that God alone controls everything, so they trust and rely on Him. Despite trying their best, they rely on God for the outcome.

A person’s hard work or intelligence does not make them arrogant, for God is the source of all that comes their way.

A person attains peace of mind in the realisation that God is ‘the Wise’ and His actions are dictated by wisdom.

Things happen for a purpose. If something reached a person, they realise it could never have escaped them. If something misses them, they realise it was never meant to be. A person achieves an inner peace and is inwardly at rest with this realisation.