Lesson video

Hi, my name is Miss.

Speakman, and we are on lesson eleven of fourteen of the Islamic beliefs and teachings unit, and today we'll be looking at predestination.

The idea within Islam that some Muslims believe that actions are already decided for them before they happen.

So, we're going to move on straight away to having a look at what we're looking at in today's lesson.

So we'll be looking at the concept of predestination, which I think sometimes for some people is quite a tricky concept cause its not one they're used to.

We are also going to consider the differences in Sunni and Shi'a views on predestination.

So if it helps as a bit of a reminder the idea of predestination is within the six articles of faith for a Sunni, and not within the five roots of faith for a Shi'a.

We're also then going to learn the influence this has on the life of a Muslim.

So if they do believe in predestination, how's that going to affect their life, and if they don't believe in predestination, again how's that affect their life.

Before we get started though we need to make sure that we are ready for our lesson, so we've got a pen or a pencil, a piece of paper or an exercise book, and a different coloured pen ready for corrections.

Also need to make sure you've got a nice clear working space.

So nice quiet space you've got enough room to write and do your work, but that you've also got any distractions away from you, So TV and music off, phone to one side if you're not using it for the lesson, so then you can fully concentrate.

Cause when we can fully concentrate, that's when we learn best.

So to get started, if you need to get yourself ready please pause the video now, and go and get those things or get yourself into clear nice quiet working space, and then unpause when your ready to learn.

Okay, brilliant, so I think we are ready now, lets move on.

There are two key definitions that you're going to need today, that is predestination and free will.

Predestination, the word we would use within Sunni Islam is Al-Qadr.

This is the belief that Allah knows everything, and has decided everything that will happen.

Then we have the idea of free will, which is being able to make choices, independent of restraints.

Essentially without someone making you do it, forcing you to do it.

So we've got predestination the idea that Allah knows everything and has decided everything that will happen, and free will being able to make your own choices.

What I'd like you to do is to copy down these two definitions first of all before we unpack the belief in predestination, and whether or not that has anything to do with free will.

So pause the video now please and write down these two definitions.

Okay brilliant so you should've written down those two definitions, and perhaps maybe as you were writing those down you were thinking, this is interesting, predestination the idea that everything has been decided before it happens.

Free will being able to make your own choices, do Muslims believe in both.

We'll answer that question in a moment.

I want you to have a go first of all though please.

So spend about three minutes on this, do you think you can believe in predestination and free will at the same time.

I want you to explain your answer to.

I'm not telling there's a right or wrong answer, because a lot of the time this will be opinion, but there are or there is an answer within Sunni Islam for sure and also within Shi'a Islam.

So I to hear first of all what you think, about whether its possible to believe in predestination and free will at the same time.

Then we're going to unpack it within Islam.

The best answers won't be necessarily whether you say yes or no, it will be because of how you answer it, how you explain and how you justify your answer.

So, think really really hard about it, look at those two definitions if your not quite sure pause the video, three minutes, do you think you can believe in predestination and free will at the same time? Unpause when you are ready to move on.

Okay have you got an answer? I'm not going to tell you the answer just yet, because I do believe its really important that we start thinking about it first and them I'm going to unpack it within Islam and you'll be able to again perhaps reevaluate what you think about predestination and free will.

What we're going to do is some multiple choice questions now, if you've watched any of my videos before, hopefully this will make sense about what I've just said, if you haven't that's okay cause I'm going to explain it anyway.

So I'm going to give you some questions, they will have two possible answers, I will count down from three, after I have counted down from three I expect you to point at your screen or say it out loud which one you think is the correct answer.

It doesn't matter if you get it wrong, doesn't matter if you get it right, its a way of practising recall, to make sure that we know things to get them stuck in our head.

If we get them wrong we say okay I don't know that, ill go back to that.

If we get it right we get it right I'll go yes, good but I've got to make sure I remember it for the future.

So if we are ready lets get started on those.

Predestination is one of the five roots of faith for a Shi'a Muslim.

Is it true or false? 3, 2, 1 False! Predestination is not one of the five roots of faith.

Predestination is one of six articles of faith for a Sunni Muslim.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Good that is true it is one of the six articles of faith.

So what we're going to do is we're going to get straight onto looking at Sunni beliefs on predestination, which is one of the six articles of faith.

Well done if you got both those questions, if you didn't that's fine, we're going to go over it, lots and lots of times, so don't worry about it, lets move on Sunni beliefs predestination.

So as I said predestination is one of the six articles of faith within Sunni Islam, and so therefore we can say for the majority of Sunni Muslims they do believe in predestination, they do believe that some actions have been decided before they happen.

The question of course is, where does this belief come from? Where does this idea of predestination, Al-Qudr in Arabic, come from? Why do some Sunni Muslims believe that all actions have been decided before they happen, that's not a common view in the western world so you might think, I find this confusing, I'm not quite sure what it means so we're going to unpack it, we're going to make sure we understand exactly why some Muslims would say, this makes sense to say that predestination is a belief.

Now first of all we know that Islam teaches that Allah is omnipotent, what this means is he is all powerful, so in this case he is in charge of everything, if he's omnipotent we know that he is also known as the creator within Islam therefore has created every single thing within the universe, the whole universe itself, and so therefore we can then imply if Allah is the creator of everything he is also the creator of all choices, all actions.

So the fact that I'm able to speak a Muslim would say that's because Allah has created the action of speech, if I'm able to pick up a pen its because Allah has created that action of picking up a pen.

Everything that someone does Muslims say well Allah's omnipotent, he's in charge of all of it, and therefore if he's in charge of it then he must of predestined it and the idea is I can't be doing something Muslims believe that goes against what Allah has created or what Allah has chosen as an option for me.

I hope that makes sense, we'll go back to it.

Secondly, that Allah is omniscient, he has foreknowledge, foreknowledge means he knows something before it happens.

As he's omniscient, all knowing, there's nothing that he cannot not know.

So essentially there is nothing which will surprise him he'll say, yeah I knew that was going to happen, because I have foreknowledge of everything.

And the Qur'an says he creates what he wills and that Allah is over all things competent.

This idea here that he creates everything and over everything is he in charge of.

So Sunni Muslim would say it implies predestination if he knows everything and he created all actions he's therefore in charge of all those things we could have chosen, he's in charge of them.

Lets break that down a little bit more though to really hopefully for you explain what this means exactly for predestination.

So of course we say this idea that Allah is omnipotent, he's in charge of all actions, therefore a human could never do something which frustrates Allah, which goes against his will, which goes against something he's created, he's in charge of all actions and that way they are predestined because they can't choose something which he didn't create.

Secondly, if Allah has foreknowledge nothing is a surprise to him and he will know everything that is going to happen.

Now this means that creation has a set cause Muslims believe that Allah knows exactly whats going to happen in the whole of history, and that he's written it down before the universe was created, he knew everything that's before the universe was created and wrote it down.

And You might say well how, how? So Muslims believe Allah is transcendent, he's outside of space and time, therefore lets imagine this piece of paper here is the universe, Allah would be outside of the universe and he'd be able to see everything in front of him like a giant map, and he'd be able to say, oh look here I can see within history, because I'm outside of space and time, within history miss speakman is going to choose to go and buy a new bag.

Okay, and then Allah goes I've seen that in this moment of time miss.

speakman is going to go and choose to buy a new bag, okay I've seen that she's going to choose that, I'm going to write it down as her destiny, and therefore that action is predestined, but within time I have made that free choice myself.

So a Muslim, a Sunni Muslim who believes in predestination would say Allah is omnipotent, all the things that happen in here he's created, he has foreknowledge, everything in space and time he has seen already, that creation therefore has a set cause he knows what's going to happen at the beginning and this will happen at the end, he knows what's going to happen in every single bit between, and therefore when he's seen something happen he writes it down as there destiny, says okay I'm going to see, I see that that's going to happen cause I've already seen it happen and I'm going to write it down as there destiny, but within time those humans have still made a free choice they have chosen to do that and Allah has written it down.

So lets imagine for example a really naughty person steals a car, not good.

Now the Qur'an says that you shouldn't steal, Allah's seen, lets call this person Bob, Bob has decided to steal a car, Allah because he's outside of space and time he has created all actions, so creator of the actions that Bob can make, he has foreknowledge so he sees before Bobs even born, before the universe even was created that Bobs going to steal a car, and he has written it down as Bob's destiny, he's seen that bobs going to steal a car, and goes I'm not happy about it because I told Bob in the Qur'an it's not good to steal, it's a sin but he's written it down as your destiny anyway because he still has a free choice.

Therefore for a Sunni Muslim they believe that you can still be judged on your actions because even though things have been predestined written down as your destiny from outside of space and time that it's still a free choice within space and time humans still have this possibility of making those free choices for themselves.

Now I hope that makes sense, I think hopefully it makes sense, if you find it confusing I would say rewind the video and then re watch my explanation again, but we're also going to do some questions and things to get our heads round it a little bit, I think it is quite a tricky concept but we have to bear in mind a couple of things, creator of all choices, knowledge of all things, that creation has a set cause because Allah is transcendent, outside of space and time, sees everything that happens, has written down peoples destiny because he sees the free choices that humans will make before they happen.

I think a good way actually is sometimes people explaining it to me when I was learning predestination is someone said, well miss.

speakman you know the words of Lilo and Stich off by heart, and I was like yeah cause I've seen it happen, I have foreknowledge when I watch that film of what's going to happen so I can say the words of that film, I know exactly whats going to happen exactly in that film, I can tell you every little detail of what happens in that film but I've not made that person in that film do that or the animation do that, that way, I've not made those characters speak I just have said I could write it down for you I could write down exactly what happens in Lilo Stitch, like frame by frame but I haven't made those things happen because there's till freedom within that film to essentially carry out its course.

Same idea of predestination Allah knows of the thing he's in charge of all actions has written down peoples destiny before the universe was created, but within time those people are still free to make those choices.

Shall we do some multiple choice questions? Because I think they can be really helpful, then what we'll do is do some questions to build on that understanding.

Lets Go.

Sunni Muslims believe Allah is omnipotent.

3, 2, 1 Good that is true, Sunni Muslims do believe that Allah is omnipotent.

Sunni Muslims believe Allah is not omniscient.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Good that's false cause Sunni Muslims do believe Allah is omniscient.

Sunni Muslims believe Allah wrote down the course of the universe before it was created.

3, 2, 1 Good that is true.

Sunni Muslims still believe human choices are free.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Good that is true cause they are free to make those choices within time Allah has only written them down because he sees what's happens outside of space and time but he does not control those choices.

So what we're going to do now is we're going to go onto looking at some questions.

So what I'm going to ask you to do is to pause the video on the next slide to complete your task there will be some sentences I would like you to answer I'm going to give you full instructions in a moment.

So I want you to copy and complete out these three sentences so I want us to understand and give it really really really really down to a detail on your piece of paper about Sunni Muslims and there belief in predestination because we would say within Sunni Islam the majority of Sunni Muslims believe in predestination and free will at the same time.

So you've got Sunni Muslims believe that Allah is, and you just name me two qualities.

Because of this, Allah knows everything that will happen and has written it down before, and you need to tell me before when, when did Allah write these things down.

These choices are still free because, you need to tell me exactly, very clearly why these choices a Sunni Muslim, majority of Sunni Muslims would believe are still free.

So I want you to pause the video now please to write your answers, give it your best go I know this can be quite tricky if you need to go back and watch the video again with me explaining that can be a really good idea but if not pause the video please and then get started on your answers.

If you can see this slide I'm going to assume that you are ready for corrections please have your different coloured pen out ready for your corrections, if you're not quite there then you can rewind a little bit and carry on with the questions but lets get started on your answers.

So we should have Sunni Muslims believe that Allah is omnipotent and omniscient, he has foreknowledge, because of this Allah knows everything that will happen and has written it down before the universe was created.

These choices are still free Because Allah writes down what he sees humans freely choosing.

This is because he is outside of time and space.

So well done if you got all of those answers correct I'll be so so impressed did because I do know that this is something that people find tricky.

So if you need to make corrections can you please pause the video now for me, absolutely fine if you do need to make corrections let's just make sure we've got those answers down, so pause the video now for me please and the unpause when you are ready to move on, when we'll look at Shi'a Muslim views on predestination.

So as I said we're going to now look at Shi'a Muslim views about predestination.

So unlike the majority of Sunni Muslims, Shi'a Muslims do not believe in both predestination and free will.

This is based on the idea within Shi'a Islam that Allah is just which is called adalat, this idea of divine justice which is actually one of the five roots of faith.

Shi'a Muslims believe that Allah has will that humans should have genuine free choice, they don't agree that things have been written down before the creation of the universe they don't believe that those things have been set as a destiny even within the idea of free choices, they believe they have genuine free will.

And this comes from the Qur'an which says, "And Allah judges with truth, while those they invoke besides him judge not with anything indeed, Allah - He is the hearing, the seeing" Essentially Shi'a Muslim believes that humans should be genuinely free in order to be judged properly.

So Shi'a Muslims would say in order to be judged properly, in order to be completely accountable for actions humans have to be completely free.

So the majority of Shi'a Muslims would not say they do not believe in predestination, but they believe in divine justice that Allah is just, he is fair and therefore to be completely fair they believe they must be genuinely free able to make free choices.

Where of course a Sunni Muslim would say that they are able to make free choices, but those free choices have already been written down as there destiny, the idea then perhaps, maybe some Sunni Muslims would say its not able to be changed, where a Shi'a Muslim believes that Allah knows everything and knows everything that will happen, but in a way in which he knows everything as soon as it happens rather than having complete full knowledge which then means that those ideas, choices are essentially set in stone, written down as destiny.

So for a Shi'a Muslim the most important thing we remember is they believe in complete, genuine free choice and that Allah is just, adalat, divine justice which is one of the five roots of faith.

Now again what we're going to do is some multiple choice questions to make sure we understand the Shi'a Muslim view and how its different from the Sunni Muslim view, then do some questions to like enhance our understanding.

So multiple choice questions, lets go.

Predestination is one of the five roots of faith for a Shi'a Muslim.

True or false? Good it is false, it is not one of the five roots of faith for a Shi'a Muslim.

Predestination is one of the six articles of faith for a Sunni Muslim.

Is it true or false? 3, 2, 1 Good yes predestination is one of the six articles of faith and it is not one of the five roots of faith.

Most Shi'a Muslims believe in predestination.

Is it true or false? 3, 2, 1 Good that is false, most Shi'a Muslims do not believe in predestination.

Which of these terms means 'divine justice'? Is it Al-Qadr or Adalat.

3, 2, 1 Good it is Adalat.

Which of these terms means 'predestination'? Is it Al-Qadr or Adalat? 3, 2, 1 Good Al-Qadr that's what I was looking for.

Shi'a Muslims believe in complete free will.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Good that is true.

Shi'a Muslims believe Allah has foreknowledge.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Good it's true they still do believe that Allah has full knowledge but not in the same way a Sunni Muslim believes that therefore he then writes down things as destiny.

So what we're going to do now is move onto some questions which enhance our understanding of what we've learnt so far well done if you got all of those multiple choice questions right, if you didn't that's absolutely fine because we are able to practise this all the time aren't we, we will go back to it that is absolutely fine.

So I want you to pause the video on the next slide to complete your task please we're going to do something very similar to what we've done before in terms of righting out some sentences and answering the questions.

So I've got four for you now, Shi'a Muslims believe in adalat which means, you tell me what it means.

Because of this, Allah has decided that all humans have, then you tell me what they have.

Allah has foreknowledge of actions which means, what does this mean? However humans can, and what can humans do even though Allah foreknows things.

So I want you to pause the video now for me please copy out those sentences and finish of the sentences so you've got a complete answer, I want you to unpause when you are ready to move on.

Okay if you can see this slide I'm assuming that you are ready to move on and ready to look at the answers.

Please make sure you have a different coloured pen out ready for corrections, if you are not ready rewind the video, continue with your questions and then come back to me in a moment, but we are now going to move on to looking at corrections.

So Shi'a Muslims believe in adalat which means divine justice.

Because of this, Allah has decided that all humans have complete free will.

Allah has foreknowledge of actions which means he knows everything before it happens.

However humans can change their destiny.

Allah knows this though because of his foreknowledge.

If you need to make any corrections please pause now and do so, and well done if you got those answers correct, but of course always good idea to make corrections and its okay if we do make mistakes, making mistakes and correcting them is a great way of learning.

So pause the video now and make corrections if you need to.

Okay we going to do some more quick fire questions to test your knowledge so far.

Predestination is one of the five roots of faith for a Shi'a Muslim.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 False good its not one of the five roots.

Predestination is one of the six articles of faith for a Sunni Muslim.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Very good it is one of the six articles of faith.

Sunni Muslims believe Allah is omnipotent.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Very good it is true.

Sunni Muslims believe Allah is not omniscient.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 It is false cause of course Sunni Muslims believe Allah is omniscient, he has full knowledge.

Sunni Muslims believe Allah wrote down the course of the universe before it was created.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Very good it is true Sunni Muslims do believe this.

Sunni Muslims still believe human choices are free.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Good yes human choices still are free even though they are written down as there destiny because Allah's transcendent.

Most Shi'a Muslims believe in predestination.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 False they do not the majority of them.

Which of these terms means "divine justice"? Al-Qadr or Adalat? 3, 2, 1 Adalat divine justice very good Which of these terms means predestination? Al-Qadr or Adalat? 3, 2, 1 Al-Qadr very good.

Shi'a Muslims believe in complete free will.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Very good that is true.

Shi'a Muslims believe Allah has foreknowledge.

True or false? 3, 2, 1 Yes that is true, a huge well done if you got all of those answers correct I'd be super super impressed if you had because obviously that shows really really good knowledge.

Not foreknowledge but shows good knowledge.

What we're now going to move onto is looking at how that will influence a Muslims life this belief in predestination or belief in free will which helps us to understand what this looks like in the life of a Muslim.

So as I said there will be a certain way that predestination, free will, will have an impact and influence in the life of a Muslim.

So whether or not a Muslim believes in predestination and free will or whether they believe just in free will, so whether its a Sunni or a Shi'a view that's sill going to have an impact on the way that a Muslim lives their life.

So firstly for example within Sunni Islam which believes that your destiny is all set in stone and has been written down before the actions have even happened, many of those Muslims would say well this means we trust that Allah has a plan for all things in life whether its good or bad, there must be a reason for why Allah has set these things in stone and why these are the free choices that have lead to the certain situation.

Sunni Muslims would say that I trust this is the way things should be whether its good or bad, its for a reason.

Whether your Sunni or Shia, well this has a big influence on us being accountable for our actions.

So even within Sunni Islam it believes that things are predestined, of course they still also believe don't they that within space and time they are making free choices, so they have to make sure those free choices are the right ones, are following the teachings of the Qur'an, following the teachings of Muhammad and that they will be held to account for them on the day of judgement.

The same with Shi'a Muslims, they believe with complete free will they are accountable for their actions and will be judged on them because Allah is fair and Allah is just, and therefore will always make the right decision.

This means that both of them will believe its important to follow the teachings of the Qur'an, to follow the example that Allah has left for them in terms of these are the rules, these are the guidelines, this is what submission looks like, and many Sunni Muslims will perform what they call dua prayers, Shi'a Muslims will perform these too but especially with this idea of predestination, free will and being able to perhaps influence your destiny, many Muslims will say if I perform dua prayers which are personal private prayers a way of sort of expressing thanks or gratitude, asking for things both Sunni an Shi'a Muslims believe that this could have an impact on their destiny whereas of course for a Shi'a Muslim you wouldn't use the word destiny but it could change the course of their life.

So for instance for Sunni Muslim performing a dua prayer may be something they have freely chosen which Allah has seen before and written down that they will do but believe it could change what their course was if they hadn't of performed this dua prayers.

For a Shi'a Muslim they believe that performing this dua prayers could ask or requesting something may help influence their afterlife, their judgement , influence the course of their life too.

So there are many ways these will influence a Muslims life, but most importantly for both Sunni and Shi'a Muslims there's this idea of their still accountable, they still should be following the teachings of the Qur'an so that's what they will do because they want to end up in Jannah, in paradise.

So I want to say a huge thank you, and I always end my lessons with a thank you but especially for today because I know that predestination, when I teach it at my own school it's something that my students still say miss I just don't get it, I find it confusing.

So if you're in this position now at the end of this lesson and you're still finding it a little bit confusing I really don't blame you because I know that its something that people struggle with, but I would say persevere with it, its something that the more you look over, the more you try and put it in your own words, the more you delve into it and think no actually I can get my head round this the better it gets.

So I know that you worked super super hard today, those questions I've given you have really pushed you I've pushed you from really really deep explanations and I hope that you are on your way to understanding and perhaps maybe you feel really confident with it now and I really hope that is the case, but of course its more than fine to still be slightly confused by it and it is something that is a really good thing to return to for revision, for exam practise, because it's just something I know it takes a little bit longer to get used to.

So a huge well done for working so so hard, I really appreciate your time and I really hope to see you again soon in one of my lessons, but if not see you later.