The people of ignorance used to deny predestination and argue unjustly against Allah on this issue, conflicting divine law with divine predestination. The matter of predestination is among the most subtle and delicate issues of religion, and only those whom Allah grants success can comprehend its reality. Allama Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him) has a very grand book on this subject titled “Shifa al-Alil fi al-Qada wa al-Qadr wa al-Hikmah wa al-Ta’lil.”
Allah Almighty has declared this ignorant belief false, saying:
سَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّـهُ مَا أَشْرَكْنَا وَلَا آبَاؤُنَا وَلَا حَرَّمْنَا مِنْ شَيْءٍ كَذَلِكَ كَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ حَتَّى ذَاقُوا بَأْسَنَا قُلْ هَلْ عِنْدَكُمْ مِنْ عِلْمٍ فَتُخْرِجُوهُ لَنَا إِنْ تَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ أَنْتُمْ إِلَّا تَخْرُصُونَ ٭ Say, “For Allah is the decisive argument. If He had willed, He would have guided you all.” (6-Al-An’am:149)
“The polytheists say that if Allah had willed, we would not have associated partners with Him, nor would our forefathers, nor would we have forbidden anything. Likewise, those before them also denied until they tasted Our punishment. Say, ‘Bring your proof if you are truthful.’ You follow nothing but conjecture and you are only guessing. Say, ‘The decisive argument belongs only to Allah. If He had willed, He would have guided you all.'”
The Tafsir of سيقول الذين أشركوا explains the false excuse of the polytheists لو شاء الله ما اشركنا ولا أباؤنا ولا حرمنا من شيء that if Allah had willed, neither we nor our forefathers would have committed shirk or forbidden anything. By saying this, the polytheists were not excusing their reprehensible actions because they did not consider these actions bad; rather, as the divine verses testify, they performed these vile acts thinking them good. For example, they worshipped idols believing that these idols would bring them closer to Allah, while their prohibition is established by Allah Almighty.
These polytheists committed these vile and forbidden acts and argued wrongly that what they did was right and lawful and pleasing to Allah because will and intention are equivalent to divine command and cause divine pleasure, as the Mu’tazila believe. Thus, the summary of their argument was that the shirk and forbidden acts they committed were connected to Allah’s will and intention, and anything related to Allah’s will and intention is lawful and pleasing to Allah. Therefore, their deeds are pleasing. After narrating their false beliefs, Allah Almighty refuted them كذلك كذب الذين من قبلهم Just as those before them also denied, meaning the forefathers of these polytheists, i.e., the prophets were denied by these polytheists despite the truth of their prophethood being established by miracles. Or it can be said that the polytheists claimed that whatever Allah wills happens and whatever He does not will does not happen. If this is the case, then no person can be held accountable for anything because hardship is conditional upon ability. Hence, the conclusion was that a person is not bound to abandon shirk, nor were prophets sent for that purpose.
Allah Almighty refuted the polytheists’ false beliefs by saying that the statement is true but the meaning is misunderstood. The statement that whatever Allah wills happens and whatever He does not will does not happen is true and factual, but the meaning derived by the polytheists is wrong because their implication was that the prophets were (God forbid) lying in their claim of prophethood and responsibility since Allah desired their disbelief and shirk, and the prophets forbade it. However, the prophets’ truthfulness has been established by conclusive evidence, and since they derived a false meaning from this true statement, Allah declared them liars. The occurrence of things according to divine will does not contradict the truthfulness of the claim of prophethood and responsibility because the claim of prophethood and responsibility is merely to complete the proof and express the truth.
Hardship means adhering to divine law حتي ذاقوا بأسنا meaning they tasted Our punishment which We sent down because of their denial. The verse ذاقوا means they tasted it; tasting is only possible when something is first obtained. The verse indicates that punishment is prepared for these polytheists قل هل عندكم من علم فتخرجوه لنا Say, “Bring your proof if you are truthful.” Demand from these polytheists that if according to their knowledge all the shirk and evil deeds they commit are according to Allah’s will, then present the proof. The verse clearly shows that by saying this, the polytheists deserved rebuke and admonition because when the prophets’ laws reached their ears commanding them to entrust all affairs to Allah, they mocked the religion and rejected the prophets’ invitation. When the prophets told them to accept Islam and obey divine commands, they mocked these words of the prophets, intending only to mock, not to express their belief.
Belief in the attributes of Allah is a branch of belief in the Divine Essence, while they are far removed and unrelated ان تتبعون الا الظن وان انتم الاتخرصون meaning you follow mere conjecture and say false things about Allah قل فلله الحجة البالغه meaning the clear proofs that are strong and undeniable in establishing the claim belong only to Allah. The proof means the Book, the Messenger, and the statement. فلوشاء لهداكم اجمعين And if Allah had willed, He would have guided you all, meaning He would have granted guidance and set you on it, but Allah only guided those who, by their own choice, took the path of truth, and those who went against the path of truth were misguided by divine will. Some interpret this verse as Allah refuting their belief that they have been deprived of free will and that shirk happened out of compulsion and necessity, and based on this corrupt belief, they claim to establish their argument against Allah and His Messenger. Allah refuted their claim of lack of free will and likened them to the previous people who denied the prophets out of deception and indulged in shirk with Allah. They continued to think that whatever they did was by Allah’s will and used this objection to silence the prophets.
So Allah said in this verse that the proof and argument are only for Him, then He clarified that whatever happens is by Allah’s will. Allah willed for them what came from them. If Allah wanted guidance for all, all would be guided. The purpose is that Allah specifically addresses this answer to them and separates the belief in the inevitability of the Sunnah and its universal interpenetration in everything by this answer. Their claim that free will has been taken away is removed by this answer, and the proof is specifically established against them.
Reflecting on this verse shows that it answers the beliefs of the Jabriyyah about predestination and the Mu’tazilah about incapacity. Because the Jabriyyah assert that a servant has so much power and ability that he can remove excuses and proofs for disobedience, and the Mu’tazilah believe that divine will is effective and ongoing in all the servant’s actions, and all actions are according to divine will. Praise be to Allah, this is the full proof of Ahl al-Sunnah against the Mu’tazilah.
Some have interpreted this verse as the polytheists rejecting the prophets’ invitation by saying that Allah’s will is that we commit shirk, so we did shirk, and you invite us to faith and monotheism against Allah’s will. Allah warned them in many ways, saying: فلله الحجة البالغة meaning even if the matter is as you think, حجة البالغه الله is only for Allah because فلو شاء meaning if Allah had willed, He would have shown you and your opponents the way of your religion. So according to your claim, all actions are subject to divine will, so Islam is also by Allah’s will. Therefore, just as according to your view, the prophets should not prevent shirk, you should also not prevent the prophets from inviting and preaching Islam. According to this principle, there should be friendship and truce between you and the Muslims instead of enmity and opposition.
The conclusion is that I have opposed your religion, so it must also be correct in your eyes because it is also by Allah’s will. Thus, all contradictory religions and sects must be accepted as correct (which no wise person will accept).
And in Surah An-Nahl, Allah Almighty says:
وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّـهُ مَا عَبَدْنَا مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ نَحْنُ وَلَا آبَاؤُنَا وَلَا حَرَّمْنَا مِنْ دُونِهِ مِنْ شَيْءٍ كَذَلِكَ فَعَلَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ فَهَلْ عَلَى الرُّسُلِ إِلَّا الْبَلَاغُ الْمُبِينُ
“And the polytheists say, ‘If Allah had willed, we would not have worshipped anything besides Him, nor would our forefathers, nor would we have forbidden anything without His command.’ Those who disbelieved before them did the same. So the messengers have clearly conveyed the message.”
The interpretation of this verse is similar to the first verse. When these polytheists failed in their argument, they took refuge in predestination to argue, but the observers saw how splendidly the discussion of the verse of Surah Al-An’am ended. Similarly, in Surah Az-Zukhruf, verses 19 and 20, the same discussion occurs, saying:
وَجَعَلُوا الْمَلَائِكَةَ الَّذِينَ هُمْ عِبَادُ الرَّحْمَـنِ إِنَاثًا أَشَهِدُوا خَلْقَهُمْ سَتُكْتَبُ شَهَادَتُهُمْ وَيُسْأَلُونَ ٭ “And they say, ‘If the Most Merciful had willed, we would not have worshipped them.’ They have no knowledge of that; they are only guessing.”
“And they assigned the angels, who are servants of the Most Merciful, as females. Were they present at their creation? Their testimony will be recorded, and they will be questioned about it. And they say, ‘If Allah had willed, we would not have worshipped them.’ They have no knowledge of that; they are only guessing.”
The only answer to this entire detail is this verse قل فلله الحجة البالغة Say, “The decisive argument belongs only to Allah.”
In the verse, forbidding refers to “Sa’ibah” and “Bahirah.” Here only shirk and forbidding are negated because these two sins were the greatest and most famous. The meaning of this polytheists’ argument was that they wanted to deny the prophets and insult them because their summary was that whatever Allah wills happens and whatever He does not will does not happen. Therefore, if Allah willed, we would acknowledge His oneness and not associate anything with Him, consider His lawful things lawful, and not forbid what we ourselves have forbidden, as the prophets say and as is conveyed from Allah. According to their claim, the acknowledgment of monotheism, denial of shirk, and all matters of halal and haram should have been as the prophets say. But since practically this did not happen, it proved that Allah Himself did not will that we follow the prophets’ teachings but remain on our own beliefs. It also became clear that all these things were fabricated by the prophets themselves (because if these matters were truly from Allah, we would have followed them according to His will).
Allah Almighty answered this ignorant argument of theirs by saying كذلك فعل الذين من قبلهم Just as these ignorant people argue, so did those before them; like them, they associated partners with Allah and forbade things without divine command and stubbornly fought the prophets to belittle the truth. فهل على الرسول الا البلغ المبين The position of the prophets is only to convey Allah’s message that opens the way of truth and reveals the commands of revelation that clarify the connection with divine will, that Allah guides those who strive for truth using their powers and abilities, as Allah says: والذين جاهدوا فينا لنهدينهم سبلنا and whoever strives in Our way, We will surely guide them.
But forcing anyone onto the truth is not the prophets’ job, nor is it according to the wisdom by which Allah has made people accountable, that if people act, the prophets are considered truthful, and if they do not act, the prophets are denied. The reality is that in actions for which reward and punishment are decided, the doer’s free will also plays a role along with divine will; otherwise, reward and punishment would be mere compulsion. A detailed and complete discussion on this verse and related verses can be found in Tafsir Ruh al-Ma’ani.
It is understood that denial of predestination and arguing unjustly against Allah and opposing divine law with predestination were among the misguidances of the people of ignorance. The conclusion is that there is neither compulsion nor delegation, but the matter lies between the two. Whoever deviates from this path will reach the way of the people of ignorance, which Allah and His Messenger have rejected.
