The Five Pillars of Qadar
Classical scholars organize the doctrine into five components:
1. ‘Ilm (Divine Knowledge): Allah’s knowledge of all events is eternal, complete, and infallible. This is not derived knowledge but essential attribute — Allah did not learn what would happen; His knowledge has no sequence.
2. Kitaba (Prior Recording): “And everything they have done is in written records, and every small and great thing is inscribed.” (54:52-53). The Lauh al-Mahfuz (Preserved Tablet) contains a record of all events before creation.
3. Mashia (Divine Will): “And you will not, unless Allah wills.” (76:30). Nothing occurs outside Allah’s will — including human choices.
4. Khalq (Creation): Allah is the creator of all actions, including human actions (37:96: “And Allah created you and what you do”). This is where the free-will tension is sharpest.
5. Hidaya (Guidance): Allah guides whom He wills and leads astray whom He wills (6:125) — an absolute divine prerogative that the Ash’ari tradition accepts as unchallengeable.
The Hadith of the Pen
“The first thing Allah created was the Pen. He said to it: ‘Write.’ It said: ‘What should I write?’ He said: ‘Write the decrees of all things until the Day of Resurrection.’” (Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi)
This hadith anchors the doctrine of prior recording. The Pen’s writing precedes creation itself.
The Theological Positions
Jabr (total compulsion): human beings have no real agency — all action is divine. This position was associated with some Umayyad-era political thought (it conveniently removed accountability from rulers).
Qadariyya (total human autonomy): human beings create their own actions; Allah only knows in advance. Ma’bad al-Juhani (early Umayyad era) — opposed by Ibn ‘Umar.
Ash’ari kasb (acquisition): human beings “acquire” (yaksibu) actions that Allah creates. The human soul has real but derived agency — agency that comes from Allah’s creative act but is genuinely the human’s.
Ismaili perspective: the tension between divine mashia and human ikhtiyar is resolved through the doctrine of the Imam as divine hujja — the Imam mediates divine guidance in each age, and the human’s free choice is precisely whether to recognize and follow the Imam, which is itself the axis of qadar.
See also: Tawhid Divine Unity, Iman And Kufr, Usul Al Din, Kalam, Al Aql, Ijtihad, Al Hurriyya