Taqrib al-Tadmuriyyah - Ibn al-'Uthaymin - (101)

Taqrib al-TadmuriyyahIbn al-'Uthaymin

against it, just as Allah has said about those who denied the messengers: “We did not wrong them; rather, they wronged themselves” (11:101). Were someone to wrong this very man who pleads qadar for his own disobedience, and then say to him, “My injustice toward you was by Allah’s decree,” he would never accept the excuse. How, then, can he reject that plea when others wrong him yet adopt it when he himself wrongs his own soul?

If the same objector were given a choice between two destinations: one, a secure and tranquil land filled with every kind of food, drink, and comfort; the other, a land of fear and turmoil containing every form of misery and hardship, he would certainly choose to travel to the first and would never select the second while invoking predestination as his defense. Why, then, does he choose what is better for his transient dwelling in this world, yet refuse to choose what is better for his eternal abode in the Hereafter?

Someone may ask: How do you answer Allah’s words to His Messenger ﷺ, “Follow what has been revealed to you from your Lord—there is no deity but Him—and turn away from the polytheists. Had Allah so willed, they would not have associated partners” (6:106–107), when He clearly states that their idolatry occurred by Allah’s will?

The reply is that Allah mentioned their idolatry as occurring by His will solely to console His Messenger ﷺ, not to defend the idolaters or furnish them with an excuse. The pagans’ own appeal to Allah’s will, by contrast, was intended to deflect blame and justify their persistence in shirk. Hence Allah invalidated their argument while affirming that their polytheism did in fact take place by His will.

Another questioner might say: How do we reconcile this with what is authentically reported in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and elsewhere from Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him), that the Prophet ﷺ said: “Adam and Moses disputed”—in another version: “Adam and Moses argued. Moses said, ‘O Adam, you are our father; you ruined us and expelled us from Paradise.’ Adam replied, ‘You are Moses, the one whom Allah chose to speak with directly and for whom He wrote the Torah with His own hand. Are you blaming me for a matter that Allah had decreed for me forty years before He created me?’ Thus Adam bested Moses in argument—Adam bested Moses, Adam bested Moses, three times.” In the wording recorded by Ahmad: “So Adam prevailed over him,” meaning he won the debate.

عليها، كما قال الله تعالى عن المكذبين للرسل: ﴿وَمَا ظَلَمْنَاهُمْ وَلَكِنْ ظَلَمُوا أَنْفُسَهُم﴾ [هود: ١٠١] . ولو أن أحداً ظلم المحتج بالقدر على مخالفته، ثم قال له: ظلمي إياك كان بقدر الله. لم يقبل منه هذه الحجة، فكيف لا يقبل هذه الحجة بظلم غيره له، ثم يحتج بها بظلمه هو لنفسه؟! ٣- أن هذا المحتج لو خير في السفر بين بلدين أحدهما: بلد آمن مطمئن فيه أنواع المآكل، والمشارب، والتنعم، والثاني: بلد خائف قلق، فيه أنواع البؤس، والشقاء، لاختار السفر إلى البلد الأول ولا يمكن أن يختار الثاني محتجاً بالقدر، فلماذا يختار الأفضل في مقر الدنيا، ولا يختاره في مقر الآخرة؟ * فإن قال قائل: ما الجواب عن قوله تعالى لرسوله ﷺ: ﴿اتَّبِعْ مَا أُوحِيَ إِلَيْكَ مِنْ رَبِّكَ لا إِلَهَ إِلَّا هُوَ وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ، وَلَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا أَشْرَكُوا﴾ [الأنعام: ١٠٦-١٠٧] . فأخبر أن شركهم واقع بمشيئة الله تعالى؟ قيل له: الجواب عنه: أن الله تعالى أخبر أن شركهم واقع بمشيئته تسلية لرسوله ﷺ لا دفاعاً عنهم، وإقامة للعذر لهم، بخلاف احتجاج المشركين على شركهم بمشيئة الله، فإنما قصدوا به دفع اللوم عنهم وإقامة العذر على استمرارهم على الشرك؛ ولهذا أبطل الله احتجاجهم ولم يبطل أن شركهم واقع بمشيئته. فإن قال قائل: ما الجواب عما ثبت في الصحيحين وغيرهما عن أبي هريرة ﵁ أن النبي ﷺ قال: "احتج آدم وموسى – وفي لفظ: تحاج آدم وموسى – فقال موسى: يا آدم! أنت أبونا خيبتنا، وأخرجتنا من الجنة. فقال له آدم: أنت موسى اصطفاك الله بكلامه وخط لك التوراة بيده أتلومني على أمر قدره الله عليَّ قبل أن يخلقني بأربعين سنة؟ فحج آدم موسى، فحج آدم موسى ثلاثاً". وعند أحمد: "فحجه آدم". أي غلبه في الحجة.