Islam Its Belief and Practices - Radical Truth

30 ISLAM ITS BELIEFS AND PRACTICES FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH 31
for those who like it, horses for those who wish to ride,
camels, fields, in short, "Things which eye saw not and
which did not enter into the heart of man."
Among these there is also said to be a tree called
Tiibli not mentioned in the Qur'an, on which grow pre­
~ious' jewels and fine clothes. On entering Paradise
believers will be youthful looking creatures, beardless,
36 years of age and they will grow neither older nor
younger.
The highest delight, however, is said to be referred
to in 10: 27 which is said to have a reference to the vision
of God when He will be seen face to face. Mu1}ammad
said, "You will see your Lord as you see this moon."
VI.
Belief in Predestination.
The faith in predestination is thus described:
Faith in the decrees of God, is that we believe in our
heart and confess with our tongue that the most High God
hath decreed all things, so that nothing can happen in the
world whether it concerns the condition and operations
of things, or good and evil, or obedience and disobedience,
or faith and infidelity, or sickness and health, or riches and
poverty, or life and death, that is not contained in the
written tablet of the decrees of God. The orthodox
Muslims are divided in the following three Schools of
faith on the question of predestination:
(1) JABARIYA: From the word Jabar meaning compulsion.
They deny all free agency in man and say
that man is necessarily constrained by the force of
God's eternal and immutable decree to act as he
does. They hold that as God is the absolute
Lord, He can, if He so wills, admit all men into
Paradise or cast all into hell.
(2) QADARIYA: They deny al-qadar or God's absolute
decree. They say that evil and injustice ought
not to be attributed to God, but to man who is
altogether a free agent.
(3) ASH'ARIYA: It is a branch of Jabariya. According
to the teaching of this school the movements
and the will of men are created by God and predestinated
by Him but they are created in such
a manner that at the same time they are acquired
by him. This doctrine is called kasb, acquisition.
This doctrine is explained in the following words
by Dr. Macdonald: "Man cannot create anything;
G0d is the only creator. Nor does man's
power produce any effect on his actions at all.
God creates in His creature power (qudra) and
choice (ikhtiyar). Then He creates in him his
action corresponding to the power and choice
thus created. So the action of the creature is
created by God as to initiative and as to production;
but it is acquired by the creature. By
acquisition (kasb) is meant that it corresponds to
the creature's power and choice, previously
created in him, without his having had the slightest
effect on the action. He was only the locus or
subject of the action. In this way al-Ash'an is
supposed to have accounted for free-will and
entail responsibility upon men."
The Ash'arite school is recognised by the orthodox
Sunnis and is the most widely accepted doctrine at the
present time. The Qadarite view was that of the
Mu'tizilites, the early rationalists of Islam. The following
are arguments as used by the Ash'arites and Qadarites
in support of their doctrines:
Ash'arite objections to the Qadarites.
(1) If a man is the cause of an action by the force of his