particular course, for the knowledge of God cannot be untrue. Now in the first place, it must be clearly understood what God’s knowledge of the future means. The fact is that the future is an open book to God. The limitations of time and space, which are everything to man, are nothing to God. Man’s knowledge of things is limited by both time and space but to the Infinite Being, unlimited space is as it were a single point and the past and the future are like the present. God sees or knows the future as a man would know what is passing before his eyes. God’s knowledge of the future therefore, though far above and far superior to man’s knowledge, is like his knowledge of the present, and mere knowledge of a thing does not interfere with the choice of the agent or the doer. Hence God’s foreknowledge has nothing to do with predestination.
Statements are frequently met with in the Holy Qur’ān in which God is spoken of as having written down the doom of a nation, or a man’s term of life, or an affliction. Such verses have also been misconstrued as upholding the doctrine of predestination. The misconception is due to a wrong interpretation of the word kitāb, which ordinarily carries the significance of writing, but has been freely used in Arabic literature and in the Holy Qur’ān itself in a variety of senses.7 Examples of these uses are: “Allāh has written down (kataba), I shall certainly prevail, I and My messengers” (58:21). “Nothing will afflict us save that which Allāh has ordained (kataba) for us” (9:51). “Say: Had you remained in your houses, those for whom slaughter was ordained (kutiba) would have gone forth to the places where they would be slain (3:154). In all these instances there is no mention of predestination or the fixing beforehand of an evil course for the evil-doer. In the first example the meaning is clearly this, that the order or command has gone forth from God, that the Holy Prophet will triumph, and God’s orders must come to pass. “God has written down” only means that it is God’s order that such a thing should happen. It is not necessary to seek a reference to any previous writing or previous order, because the order or writing is there in these words themselves, but, if necessary, the reference may be to the numerous
7 Rāghib says: “The word kitāba carries the significance of ithbāt i.e., establishing or confirming, and taqdīr, i.e., measuring out and ijāb, i.e., making obligatory, and fardz i.e., making incumbent, and ‘azm bi’l-kitāba, i.e., determination to write down.” And further on, it is stated that kitābat also signifies qadzā, i.e., what has been brought to pass, and ḥukm, i.e., order, and ‘ilm, i.e., knowledge.