Fourth: The belief in Allah's Power to create and make them exist as He has power over everything, the Supreme Creator, the AllKnower; He created all things and brought them into existence. This applies to the present and the future. He is the Omnipotent with no partner, the Creator, the Sustainer, and has power over all things. He (may He be Praised) states: Allâh is the Creator of all things, and He is the Wakîl (Trustee, Disposer of affairs, Guardian) over all things.
Believing in alQadar includes all the aforementioned prerequisites. It includes Iman in Allah's Knowledge of everything and His Predestination; that whatever He wills happens, and whatever He does not will does not happen. Iman includes also the belief that Allah is the Supreme Creator Who created and caused all things to exist (may He be Praised). This refutes whoever claims otherwise from Mu`tazilah and others. Whoever denies Allah's Mashi'ah and claims that things happen beyond Allah' Will, then he refuses to accept the Omnipotence of Allah and does not give Him His due respect. Hence, every believer should have unquestionable Iman that Allah is potent over everything and that events occur according to His Cosmic Will. Yet, some people are inattentive of such articles of Iman with which the messengers were sent. Therefore, they should be educated about them with evidence and they should know the difference between Allah's Divine Predestined Universal Will mentioned in His statement: Verily, His Command, when He intends a thing, is only that He says to it, "Be!" and it is! and
Divine Legal Will which is not applicable to all people such as the disbelievers which it is meant by Allah's statement: Allâh wishes to make clear (what is lawful and what is unlawful) to you, and to show you the ways of those before you, and accept your repentance. It is known that some people have died while being ignorant of some basic tenets of Iman and without offering Tawbah (repentance to Allah). Allah (Exalted be He) says: Allâh wishes to lighten (the burden) for you This is the Legal Will, because Allah eased matters for some people and left others. This means that Allah willed, loved and satisfied with it but some people were made to succeed in that while others failed. This is expressed in the sahih Hadith: Allah, the Exalted will say to some pagans on the Day of Resurrection: Would you like to go as ransom if you had all what equals to earth in gold? He would say: Yes. Allah would say to him: When you were in the loins of Adam, I asked you for something easier than this that you should not associate anything with Me. But you associated with Me others. All messengers conveyed this message of worshipping Allah alone and forbidding associating others with Him but most people refused and took partners with Allah in worship and did not accept the Divine Will. Therefore, whoever believes in these four matters of Iman; Allah's knowledge of all things; He predestined them to happen; He willed them to happen; and He is the Supreme Creator of all things, then he fully believes in Qadar but whoever falls short in this, his Iman is imperfect and is not following the creed of AhlulSunnah walJama`ah due to imperfect belief in all matters of Qadar.
This belief in Qadar does not necessarily mean that the servant is predestined without a free will or Mashi'ah as a feather moved helplessly by the wind as claimed by Qadariyyah who hold the view of Predestination from Jahmiyyah and others, rather Human beings have choice, will, and volition,
to discern truth from falsehood. Human beings have choice, will, and volition, but these are only realized through Allah's Will (Glorified and Exalted be He), as He (Exalted be He) states: To whomsoever among you who wills to walk straight. And you cannot will unless (it be) that Allâh wills the Lord of the 'Alamîn (mankind, jinn and all that exists).
Humans have free will and are predestined; free because Allah (may He be Praised) gave them minds, hearing, the ability to choose and the will to manage their spiritual and worldly affairs. They have wills by which they can avoid sin, obey Allah's commands or disobey Him, and give in charity or not. In regard to being predestined, this occurs because humans cannot escape, due to their words and deeds, the Divine Decree and the Will of Allah (may He be Praised).They have a will but which can only be realized through Allah's Will (Glorified and Exalted be He), and that is why Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) states: He it is Who enables you to travel through land and sea By that, it could be said that human beings are predestined and also have free will and each person is led to that for which he has been created. Allah gives him the mind and the free will to act as he so likes. Similarly, he is predestined as far as Allah's Knowledge is concerned and led to doing good or bad according to Allah's Predestined Will, and as such, he cannot do anything contrary to what Allah decreed for him. In this regard, the Prophet (peace be upon him) stated: No, do perform good deeds, for everyone is facilitated in that for which he has been created; For the good deeds are made easy for the blessed, and bad deeds are made easy for the wretched." Then he recited the Ayahs: As for him who gives (in charity) and keeps his duty to Allâh and fears Him, And believes in AlHusnâ. We will make smooth for him the path of ease (goodness). and the next verse. (Agreed upon by AlBukhari and Muslim) from the Hadith of `Ali ibn Abu Talib (may Allah be pleased with him). This makes it clear for a believer to differentiate between the creed of the Salaf (righteous predecessors) and that of the Mu`tazilah and Qadariyyah who denied the creed of Predestination, and AlQadariyyah who held it.
As for the first sect of Qadariyyah, they went so far in proving the Predestination that they said: The servant has no free will
or Mashi'ah at all. Definitely, they were wrong about that although they were right in their proving of AlQadar. Concerning the second sect of Qadariyyah who denied Predestination, they also went far in that regard although they acknowledged that the human being has a free will and free choice but they separated it from Allah's Will. Combining the merits of both sects, Ahlul Sunnah walJama`ah hold the true opinions and abandoned their false thoughts.
Hence, it is incumbent upon those who seek AlHaqq (the Truth) if they refute the claims of their adversaries to be fair in declaring what they benefited from them and what they avoided, telling them that you said soand so and we agree with you in this regard and you said soandso and we do not accept that. They should say that they agree with them in believing in AlQadar but oppose their saying that the human being is predestined, as he has a free will and a free choice. It should be said to these sects of Mu`tazilah and their likes that we agree with the saying that the human being has a free will, but not confirming that this will is not realized through Allah's Will and that His Mashi'ah is related to His Servant's.
This should be said to the Shi`ah (Shi'ites) that we are with you in your love AhlulBayt (members of the Prophet's extended Muslim family) and `Ali (may Allah be pleased with him), and that all goodness lies in following his way as one of the best companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); rather he was the best after AlSiddiq, `Umar and `Uthman (may Allah be pleased with them all). However, we contradict you in your claim of his infallibility or his precedence to the Caliphate after the Messenger of Allah as there are three persons before him more deserving of this honor. We are not with you with regard to your deifying him, seeking his help, making vows for him, and the like. Our dispute with you is because you went far from the righteous path, although we stand shoulder with shoulder with you in loving and revering AlulBayt who were committed to Allah's Shari'ah, invoking Allah's pleasure on them, and we believe that they are the best of Allah's Creation as stated in the Messesnger of Allah's will, as he said in the Hadith narrated by Zayd ibn Arqam compiled insahih Muslim: I am leaving among you two weighty things: First: the Book of Allah in which
there is right guidance and light, so hold fast to the Book of Allah and adhere to it... He then said: Second: the members of my household! I remind you (of your duties) to the members of my family.
The same applies to all other sects, as we accept their opinions that agree with the truth and admit that for them, and at the same time refute their
deviance and falsehood through textual and rational evidence. Thus, it becomes so clear that these six fundamentals are themselves the pillars of this Deen and which include the essential tenets of Islam and Iman that whoever abides by their creed, in word and deed, then they have perfected their Iman and are saved from hypocrisy. This is because such articles of faith oblige the Mu'min to fulfill what Allah has obligated upon them and their belief in all that Allah informed us of in His Book or through the Prophet (peace be upon him) Sunnah. Whoever denies these articles or some of them is indeed not a Mu'min.
In short, these fundamentals are great ones and basic rules for this Din and should be observed and abided by in all conditions avoiding what contradicts them. Whoever claims an opinion or does an act of disbelief proves his lack of true Iman in these prerequisites of faith or some of them, such as abandoning Salah (Prayer), as those who neglect Salah is utterly without faith, according to the soundest scholarly opinion; if he has true faith, it will hold him back from this sin. According to the most preponderant opinion, the person who neglects Salah commits kufr Akbar, for the Prophet (peace be upon him) said:
What makes one a disbeliever and a polytheist is abandoning prayers.
Recorded by Muslim in his sahih.
That which differentiates us from the disbelievers and hypocrites is our performance of Salat. He who abandons it, becomes a disbeliever.
Recorded by AlImam Ahmad and AhlulSunan (authors of Hadith compilations classified by jurisprudential themes) with a sahih (authentic) Sanad (chain of narrators)on the authority of Buraydah ibn AlHaseeb (may Allah be pleased with him).
Likewise, whoever shows disrespect to Allah (may He be Praised) or His Messenger (peace be upon him) or does not believe in what Allah told with regard to the existence of Jannah, Hellfire, and the Qur'an, then they are disblieversaccording to the Ijma` (consensus), because such mocking and disrespect reflect their false Iman or that they have no Iman at all in them due to such deviance.
This is also applicable to whoever desecrates the Mushaf (Arabic Qur'an), blemishes it with impurity, or sits upon it knowing that it is the Book of Allah. This indicates that he has no faith at all; rather he only claims that; otherwise he would never commit such acts which render one a disbeliever.
Those who mock the messengers or do not believe in them are disbelievers because by doing so, they admit their lack of true Iman and their falsely claiming to be believers. This applies to the other matters which people do, such as the people of Musaylimah who believed the call of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and offered Salah and Sawm (Fast), but at the same time they claimed that Musaylimah is a partner with the Prophet in his mission. Accordingly, they were unanimously rendered disbelievers according to the scholars among the Sahabah and those who came after them, even though they offered Salah, Sawm, and said that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah. Once they believed that Musaylimah is a partner with Muhammad in his message, this alone entailed their Kufr, as they afterwards denied Allah's statement:
Muhammad (ﺻﻠﻰ ﺍﷲ ﻋﻠﻴﻪ ﻭﺳﻠﻢ) is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of Allâh and the last (end) of the Prophets.
and denied the sahih and Mutawatir Hadiths that prove our Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) as the Seal of prophets and messengers. Also the Qadyanis and those among them who believed that Ghulam Ahmad was a prophet to whom there was a certain message revealed by Allah, were regarded as having committed Kufr Akbar, because they are disbelievers of Allah and His Messenger, even if they offered Salah, Sawm and claimed themselves as Muslims. Those who also did not believe that the Jannah or Hellfire exist, and that the Hellfire is not a place of torment for its dwellers but a blessing for them as stated by Ibn `Arabi, the deviant who is known for pantheism. Undoubtedly, this is a rejection of what Allah's Book or the Sunnah of His Prophet mentioned as well as the Ijma` of scholars that the Hellfire is a place of torment, not pleasure, as a punishment for their neglect of what Allah enjoined upon them and committing what He forbade in addition to disbelieving in what the messengers called to. The Qur'an has many Ayahs indicating that the disbelievers will be punished with torment in the Hellfire. Nobody can deny this except a stubborn, arrogant, and ignorant person who is totally unaware of what the messengers were sent with or with no mind at all.
This makes it clear that evidence of Islamic matters is derived from the Qur'an and the Sunnah according to what Allah and His Messenger told as well as the authentically reported words from the Salaf of this Ummah (nation). Whoever refuses this and claims what contradicts these fundamentals of Iman deviates from the Straight Path and their claim is false.
I ask Allah (Glorified and Exalted be He) to grant us a good understanding of His Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet, and to bestow upon us and all Muslims the blessing of true Iman and good deed. May Allah make us steadfast in adhering to the Truth until we meet Him (may He be Praised)! Indeed, He is AllHearer and Responsive! May peace and blessing be upon His Servant and Messenger, our Prophet, his Family, Companions, and those who followed him in righteousness!