. J ; ; ;J; : ,;I•; (cont.)

This is because every act of a human is the result of two aspects: a definitive will [to do the act] and the complete ability [to do the act]. For example, suppose that in front of you is a stone weighing twenty pounds. I say to you, "Lift this stone," and you say, "I don't want to lift it." In this case, your lack of will has prevented you from lifting the stone. If I said a second time to you, "Lift that stone," and you said, "Yes, I will listen and do what you have said." In this case, if you wanted to lift it but you were not capable of lifting it, you would not have lifted it because you did not have the capability to do so. If I said to you a third time, "Lift that stone," and you complied and lifted it above your head, that was because you had the ability and the will to do it. Commentary on the Forty Hadith of al-Nawawi All of our deeds that we perform are, therefore, the result of a definitive will and complete ability.1 The one who created that ability and will is Allah. If Allah had made you paralyzed, you would not have the ability. If you turned your attention to some other deed, you would not have done it... Therefore, we say: All of the actions of humans are created by Allah. This is because they are the result of definitive will and complete ability. The one who created that will and ability is Allah. The way in which Allah is the creator of that will and capability is that the will and ability are two characteristics of the one who wants something and the one who has ability but the one who created that person with that ability was Allah. The One who created the person who has specific characteristics is also the one who created those characteristics. This makes the matter clear and shows that the actions of human beings are the creation of Allah. 2 Actually, there are a number of questions and misconceptions that have arisen surrounding the concept of Qadar. Due to space limitations, they cannot be dealt with in detail here. However, in a not-too-lengthy passage, Jaafar Sheikh Idris has adequately dealt with a number of such issues. He wrote, God decided to create man as a free agent, but He knows (and how can He not know?) before creating every man how he is going to use his free will; what, for example, his reaction would be when a Prophet clarifies God's message to him ... "But if we are free to use our will," a Qadari3 might say, "we may use it in ways that contradict God's will, and in that case we would not be right in claiming that everything is willed or decreed by God." The Quran answers this question by reminding us that it was God who willed that we shall be willful, and it is He who allows us to use our will. [He then quotes surah al-Insaan 29-30, also quoted above.] "If so," says a Qadari, "He could have prevented us from doing evil." Yes, indeed he could, "Had God willed, He would have brought them all together to the guidance; if thy Lord had willed whoever is in the earth would have believed, all of them, all together" [Yunus, X:99]. .. But He had willed that men shall be free especially in regard to matters of belief and disbelief. "Say: 'The truth is from your Lord; so let whosoever will believe, and let whosoever will disbelieve" [al-Kahf, XVIII:29]. .. 1 This should probably say, "All of our voluntary deeds . . . " because there are some deeds that humans perform involuntarily and without a definitive will. 2 Ibn Uthaimeen, Majmooat, vol. 3, pp. 196-197. 3 A Qadari is one who denies the concept of al-Qadar altogether. Hadith #2: The Hadith of Jibreel "If our actions are willed by God," someone might say, "then they are in fact His actions." This objection is based on a confusion. God wills what we will in the sense of granting us the will to choose and enabling us to execute that will, i.e., He creates all that makes it possible for us to do it. He does not will it in the sense of doing it, otherwise it would be quite in order to say, when we drink or eat or sleep for instance, that God performed these actions. God creates them, He does not do or perform them. Another objection, based on another confusion, is that if God allows us to do evil, then He approves of it and likes it. But to will something in the sense of allowing a person to do it is one thing; and to approve of his action and commend it is quite another ... 1 "[both] the good and the evil thereof' After mentioning, "the good and evil thereof," other narrations mention, "the sweet and the sour thereof'.