If God Preordained Everything, Why Should I be held Accountable?

An Islamic Blog for Seekers of God & New Muslim Converts

The last pillar of the Islamic faith, one that every Muslim believes, is the concept of Al-Qadr, which closely translates to predestination or pre-ordainment (sometimes translated as predestination/Divine Decree, destiny, or fate). When one believes in the tenet of Al-Qadr, translated as "Divine Decree," they affirm that everything--good or bad--that happens in their life emanates from God the Almighty and is something He willed to happen. Al-Qadr, in Arabic, translates to mean to measure, to determine, to assess, to decide, to judge. In the context of religion, the term means "Divine determined measurements and sustenance for everyone and everything, in accordance with His Wisdom and Power." God states in his Book:

Indeed, all things We created with predestination (Quran 54:49)

God the Almighty, being All-Knowing and All-Wise, knows what we have done in the past, what we are doing now, and what we will do in the future— even before our birth. After all, can God be God if He doesn't know everything, including the future? Whereas humanity has the free will to make their own choices, everything happens only and directly through God's Will and Power.

Before discussing the idea that if God preordained everything, why should we be held accountable? You must understand the concept of Divine Decree better. Al-Qadar (Divine Decree) comprises four components. The first component is the belief that God is All-Knowledgeable. His Knowledge encompasses all things. The Almighty's foreknowledge is infallible and complete.

"And with Him are the keys of the unseen; none knows them except Him. And He knows what is on the land and in the sea. Not a leaf falls but that He knows it. And no grain is there within the darknesses of the earth and no moist or dry thing but that it is written in a clear record" (Quran 6:59)

The second component of Divine Decree is the belief that Allah has recorded all happenings, everything from the beginning of time to the Day of Judgment, in a Tablet He has kept an account known as the Lawh Al-Mahfooth (the Preserved Tablet). Each person's lifespan, substance, deeds, happiness, sorrows, and more are written and recorded on this Tablet. In fact, according to a narration of Prophet Muhammad PBUH, Allah, the Glorious, recorded the measurements of all matters regarding His creation fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth.

"Do you not know that Allah knows what is in the Heaven and Earth? Indeed, that is in a Record. Indeed that, for Allah, is easy" (Quran 22:70)

The third component of Divine Decree is the belief that nothing can occur without the Will and Power of Allah, whether the event stems from the action of the Almighty or the actions of humanity. Nothing occurs haphazardly or by accident; the Almighty has decreed everything.

Muslims acknowledge that anything that has happened could not have been avoided or prevented--no one can avoid an occurrence unless God has willed it. By contrast, whatever has not reached, attained, or afflicted a person, was not meant to touch or afflict that person by God's will. Our Prophet PBUH narrated, "Know if all of humanity gathered to harm you, they could not harm you unless Allah had decreed. The Pen has been lifted, and the pages have dried."

The fourth and last component of Divine Decree is the belief that Allah is the Creator and Originator of all things.

"...and has created each thing and determined it with precise determination" (Quran 25:2)

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