'Jabr-o-Qadr' and Freedom of Choice

                

‘Jabr’ is imposition of Allah’s Will, without attaching to a person any responsibility regarding an event faced by him. ‘Qadr’ is imposition of Allah’s Will,  attaching to a person a responsibility relating to an event faced by him. ‘Jabr’ does not relate to freedom of choice but ‘Qadr’ relates to freedom of choice.

Allah determines everything in terms of kind and time.  Whatever capabilities, experiences and mental states an individual observes in his life, are in fact presented to him/her by Allah at a pre-determined time. Among other things which Allah pre-determines for human being is that human being will use his/her intellect at each and every moment of his/her life; it is not possible for human being to spend a single moment of her/his life without utilizing his/her intellect. We cannot take even a single step forward without utilizing our intellectual capabilities consciously or unconsciously; we fall down while taking a foot-step, if our concerned intellectual capabilities are not working properly.  In other words, it is not possible for a human being whose intellectual capabilities are working properly that he/she may not utilize his/her intellectual faculties in the face of any event/moment of his/her life. Every person uses his/her intellect to deal with everything he /she faces in life. In other words, nobody is exempted from responsibility of his/her actions and inactions in the face of any eventuality he/she meets with in his/her life.

Allah determines every event to be faced by a person in life, sometimes on the basis of that person’s action/inaction, and sometimes NOT on the basis of that person’s action/inaction. In both cases, what should be the shape of event to be faced by a person is wholly solely Allah’s Will, but the concerned person is bound to utilize his intellect to formulate his action/inaction to shape that event according to his/her choice. A person is enforced by Allah to utilize his/her intellect in the face of any event he/she faces with; this is what has been determined by Allah; this is what is fate of every person whose intellectual faculties are working properly. Only mad people are exempted from this fate. In short, a person is not exempted from responsibility to shape events according to his own choice/intellect, whether or not, result occurs according to his choice. Barring a few exceptions, all events experienced by a person in his/her life fall under this category of events which the person has to shape according to his/her own choice/intellect through action/inaction; all such events relate to ‘Qadr’- in which Allah determines events but assigns responsibility to the person concerned to shape the events according to his/her own choice/intellect through action/inaction, and it is in the nature of every person to assume such responsibility.

There is another category of events which are determined by Allah without attaching any responsibility to the person concerned to shape the events according to his/her choice/intellect; such events are only a few in a person’s life, and relate to ‘Jabr’.  In such cases the person has no choice to shape the events, and is exempted from responsibility to shape events according to his/her choice/intellect.