plain words of the first report. At any rate, it does not mean that God knew what they would do after attaining majority, since they were to die before that. It, therefore, means that God knew that they would die in the condition in which they were born, i.e., the condition of Islām, because He knew that they would not attain to the age of discretion, when they would be able to judge between right and wrong and adopt the one course or the other.

It would be difficult to consider here all the ḥadīth relating to qadar. Only Bukhārī, the most reliable collection of Ḥadīth, may be considered. In the first place, Bukhārī does not relate a single report speaking of faith in qadar, and thus the question that such a faith is one of the fundamentals of Islām is disposed of, for faith in qadar is unknown both to the Holy Qur’ān and to the most reliable collection of Ḥadīth. Coming to the actual ḥadīth which Bukhārī has related in his Jāmi‘ in book 82, called Qadar, one finds that not a single report in this chapter lends any support to the theory that a good or an evil course has been chalked out beforehand and is forced upon man. The ḥadīth related here, as well as in other collections, generally speak either of the Divine knowledge of things or the Divine command prevailing over all. The most well-known report from which predestination is concluded is that speaking of an angel being in charge of the embryo — “an angel is sent to the embryo, and he is commanded with four things; his sustenance and his term of life and whether he is unhappy or happy (Bu. 82:1). The same ḥadīth occurring elsewhere is in the following words: “Then an angel is sent and he is commanded with the four words. It is said to him, Write down his actions and his sustenance and his term of life and whether he is unhappy or happy” (Bu. 59:6). The writing down of actions in the state of embryo seems to be a case of a clear mistake; for the Holy Qur’ān plainly speaks of angels writing down the deeds when they are done, and in this connection not one, but two angels are spoken of.20 But even if the words are accepted as correct they can be interpreted in consonance with the teachings of the Holy Qur’ān to mean that the Divine knowledge of things is all-comprehensive, so much so that He knows all about a man even in the embryonic state. The angel’s record, as already shown does not mean actually writing down in a book; it is only expressive of Divine knowledge. As the properties of