رسالة في لغة أبي علي بن سينا
لسان العرب
القضاء و القدر
Al-Qadhā (Primordial Decision, Decree) & Al-Qadar (Immutable Destiny, Fate)

 

Source: http://www.untiredwithloving.org/ibn_sina_qadha_qadar.html

“Allah’s Qadha is Allah’s Awwal (Primordial) Hukm (Decision), the Wahid (1 with no 2 or alike) that encloses every Shai’ (Object) and every object branches out of it (Qadha), coupled with the passage of time.

And Allah’s Qadar (Immutable Destiny) is the ordering/sequencing of the effusive emanation of ‘Ashia’ (Objects) out of that Qadha (Primordial Decision), one Shai’ (Object) after another Shai’ (Object), as Allah said: “And We did not send it down except with the ‘given’ pre-determined Qadar (Immutable Measure, Destiny).”

Dara
Qadha is the Primordial Decision dealing with the objectification and attributes of an object in this world. It is non-cognitive and free from the intervention of any intellect. Any decision we make is nothing but an image/reflection of this singleton Primordial Decision in Qidam.

The term Awwal (Primordial) is related to the term Qidam.

Ibn Sina’s phrase above: ‘that encloses every Shai’ (Object)’ has two important aspects:

1.    Enclose: A process by which an object can be thought of trapped within a closed boundary. These enclosures could be intellectual, physical, geometrical/mathematical, biological, actual or probable. Qadha (Primordial Decision) generates a ‘bounding box’ around the subject of the Primordial Decision. This bounding-box allows for this object to have the concept of ‘1’ as in ‘that one’, but a unique ‘1’ that has no second i.e. the object does not confuse itself with any other of its own kind or others.
2.    Shai’: An object that can be enclosed within some boundary as was mentioned in 1. And this definition is obtained from Al-Kursi verse: [2:255]” Nor shall they encompass any Shai’ (Object) of Hu’s (ITs, His) knowledge except as Hu (IT, He) had willed.” The same word Shai’ was used, as something that can be surrounded or limited by a boundary, in this case mental/intellectual. Note that the ‘had willed’ is in the past i.e. the Decision is primordial in Qidam.

وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِشَيْءٍ مِنْ عِلْمِهِ إِلَّا بِمَا شَاءَ

Note: This bounding-box may not apply for other entities viewing the object i.e. primarily this bounding-box is for the object (internally) in and of itself.

Lane Dictionary
“Inba’atha ‘an shai’: the thing became impelled or propelled; or went swiftly or quickly as though impelled; thus you say about water: it poured forth or out as though impelled.”

Futuhat (Ibn Arabi) 
“… like the emanation (Inba’ath) of smoke from a fire…”

The emanation of the Shai’ (Object) from the Qadha (Primordial Decision) is effusive i.e. similar to the release of the liquid/gas currents from a container.

Self: A Bounding-Box, A Capsule

Qadha (Primordial Decision) generates a ‘bounding box’ around the subject of the Primordial Decision. This bounding-box allows for this object to have the concept of ‘1’ as in ‘that one’, but a unique ‘1’ that has no second i.e. the object does not confuse itself with any other of its own kind or others.

This bounding-box is the very foundation of the Self!

Note: This bounding-box may not always apply for other ‘external’ entities viewing the object i.e. primarily this bounding-box is for the object (internally) in and of itself.

Example, a proton stays a proton until some external force influences it e.g. decay or high energy field, the process of proton remaining a proton, is what we call the bounding-box. Without this bounding-box, there is no process for the object to know and to stay the same thing for a long enough period of time.

Oddly we realize that this bounding-box serves as a static ‘memory’ of some kind! It allows the object to be ‘1’ of something. Without this bounding-box, the object would be confused sometimes it is an electron and sometimes it is a proton.

 

 

Ibn Sina
“And indeed all the holy books have spoken about the veracity of the Qadha (Primordial Decision) and Qadar (Immutable Destiny), and all devoted persons have spoken in compliance with it. Although the prohibition from investigation and cognizance of the qualities and quantities of Qadha and Qadar has been universal for all religions without exception since it has been Allah’s Divine Secret for Hu’s (ITs, His) creation to monopolize the Qadha and Qadar for Hu’s (ITs, His) own Divine Knowledge. No one knows about this Qadha and Qadar except Hu (IT, He) and those specifically selected members of Hu’s (ITs, His) creation.

Ibn Sina
However those clueless people who desire to drag along religions to adhere to their own intellects, which did not become capable of reflection, or of reaching certainty, did not benefit anyone nor did they themsleves glean any benefits and were not sustained in a growth that would allow them to conceptualize of such matters; those people believe that acknowledging the Qadar (Immutable Destiny) is tantamount to atttributing wrongdoings to the Lord Most High. Therefore those people would rather go to any extents to search for causality elsewhere according to the whims of their Selves (denying the ultimate primacy of the Primordial Decision).

Ibn Sina
When the arguments and claims are attributed to their origins (i.e. the Qadha & Qadar), and related to their beginnings, their causality having been fully researched, and the states/circumstances of their foundations fully explored, one sees that they do not cease to glide upwards towards the causations that the Creator of the Creation made antecedent to them i.e. Qadha & Qadar. The Possessor of the Primordial Planning organized them and the One to Hu (IT, He) belong the creation and the command illuminated them; and it is ceaselessly that Hu (IT, He) indeed knows the first is to be followed by the second and the antecedent is to be followed by the proceeding and their organization (i.e. Qadha & Qadar) continues necessitating an unnumbered many varied whims and wishes, good deeds and evil deeds, praiseworthy and blameworthy end-results and final guidance or misguidance.

Ibn Sina
The Primordial Creator did not diminish or damage Hu’s (ITs, His) creation by this Qadha & Qadar, and Hu’s (ITs, His) commandments are immutable and what transpires has no significance or effect on Hu (IT, He); that indeed created these for paradise and that has no significance or effect on Hu (IT, Hu) and created those for hell and again that has no significance or effect on Hu (IT, Hu); and all that to let it be known that Hu’s (ITs, His) Will does not have any near proximity to the thoughts of the minds, the minds that do not cross-pollinate by the pollen of Hu’s (ITs, His) Commandment and these Divine Commandments do not covariate with the variance of the intellectual hallucinations of minds that cannot be corrected by the cultivation and education of the Basira (Spiritual Eye).

Ibn Sina
The innermost nature of the general population, what they consider good and what they consider shameful, in no ways relate to the way of Hu’s (ITs, His) Reign and Mandate, and these public considerations do not and cannot appreciate Hu’s (ITs, His) exigent Greatness; Hu’s (ITs, His) affairs are not like the affairs of other than IT/He, and Hu’s (ITs, His) commandments are not like the commandments of other than IT/He; Exalted and Sublime above and beyond any of that is Hu:” Hu (IT, He) is not asked about what IT does and yet they are being asked what they do! [21:23]”

© 2015-2002,  Dara O. Shayda, Dr. Hind Rifai  (2007)