An Overview of the Predestination in the Light of the Qur’an

The concept of predestination is one of the issues discussed since ancient times. Including divine religions and the world of thought, humanity is divided into two groups: those who believe in predestination and those who do not. It is investigated that how the belief in predestination take place in the Islamic religious texts and how it was understood by different schools. This research is based on the Qur’an, the main source of Islam. Sources belonging to different schools of ‘Ilm al-Kalām are referred and also examined that how those schools interpret the ideas about the belief in predestination and how they had understood it. The Quranic verses related to predestination are generally grouped in three. These are belief in destiny, predestination and human freedom. The verses in the first group indicate a belief of destiny. Of these verses, the most suitable ones are al-Qamar 54/49, al-Furqan 25/2, al-Mursalat 77/23 and ‘Abasa 80/19. The verses regarding the belief in predestination are as follow: ？l al-Imran 3/145, Ahzab 33/38 and 20/40. Although there are many verses related to the human freedom, some of them have been evaluated in terms of the belief in predestination. In the light of the verses, it is concluded that the belief in a non-compulsory destiny is consistent with the Qur’an