Divine Will and Predestination by Dr. ’Umar Sulaiman al-Ashqar is Volume 8 — the concluding volume — of the Islamic Creed Series, and it takes on the pillar of faith most often misunderstood as fatalism: belief in Al-Qadar, Allah’s decree.
What the Book Covers
Does believing that everything happens within Allah’s decree mean a Muslim has no real choices to make? Al-Ashqar answers that directly, working from the Qur’an and Sunnah and from the words of major scholars such as Ibn Taymiyyah, and covering the historical debates within the Ummah over how far human free choice extends within Allah’s decree. His conclusion is the orthodox one: everything occurs within the framework of Allah’s will, and within that framework, people genuinely choose — which makes Qadar an empowering belief rather than an excuse for passivity.
Who This Book Is For
Anyone who has heard Qadar used to explain away personal responsibility and wants the actual Islamic position, explained clearly rather than left as an unresolved paradox.
The Islamic Creed Series
This is Volume 8 of the eight-volume Islamic Creed Series by Dr. ’Umar Sulaiman al-Ashqar, each volume a self-contained study of one part of Islamic belief, drawn from the Qur’an and Sunnah:
All eight volumes are also sold together in the Islamic Creed Series 8-Book Set.
About the Author
Dr. ’Umar Sulaiman al-Ashqar (1940–2012) was born in Palestine and later studied at the Islamic University of Madinah before completing his master’s and doctorate at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, under scholars including Shaykh Ibn Bāz and Shaykh Al-Albānī. He served as a professor and Dean of the Faculty of Islamic Law at Al-Zarqa’ University, and later taught at the University of Jordan. The Islamic Creed Series is his best-known work in English.
