Predestination is a dangerous topic of which only the vary most outer layers are known. Some people use predestination in ways that are quite foolish and downright stupid as an excuse for something or other. Yet predestination is a legitimate topic and Islam does express it with important reservation.
Though Islam discusses it, mainly in hadith form but also in the Quran if one looks for those things, the Main Stress, in fact the ONLY STRESS given is expressing the ALL-ABLE, ALL-DOMINANT, ALL-KNOWING, ALL-POWERFUL, ALL-AWARE, ALL-CONTROLLER, ETC, and HIS WILL ON EVERY KNOWN EVENT!
ALLAH! There is no god but HE – the Ever Living, the Self-subsisting, the Eternal. No slumber can seize HIM or sleep. HIS are all the things in the heavens and on earth. Who is there that can intercede in HIS presence except as HE permits? HE knows what (appears to HIS creatures as) before or after or behind them. Nor shall they encompass anything of HIS Knowledge except as HE Wills. His THRONE does extend over the heavens and on earth, and HE feels no fatigue in guarding and preserving them, for HE is the MOST HIGH, The SUPREME in GLORY). Quran (2:55)
Even Adam recognized this in his argument with Moses (pbh) when he stated his own innocence about something that ALLAH had put in motion 40 years before he was created:
Abu Huraira narrated that the Prophet (pbh) said, “Adam and Moses argued with each other. Moses said to Adam. ‘O Adam! You are our father who disappointed us and turned us out of Paradise.’ Then Adam said to him, ‘O Moses! ALLAH favored you with HIS talk (talked to you directly) and HE wrote (the Torah) for you with HIS OWN Hand. Do you blame me for action which ALLAH had written in my fate forty years before my creation?’ So Adam refuted Moses, Adam refuted Moses,” the Prophet (pbh) added that statement again, repeating the Statement three times. (Bukhari)
That, however, is too far above the capacity of man or any Angel to know but the Islamic outline is really fascinating:
According to Paul, various hadiths and some things in the Quran expressing ALLAH’s Abilities in words, predestination shows one very important thing: that is that ALLAH is in Total Control from beginning to end for HIS Divine Purposes in HIS Divine Plan and that those who, for some reason, opposed HIM and went on opposing HIM, are total losers in whatever dimension they may be found and in whatever dimension they end up in.
It is true that ALLAH has held out ‘The Rope’ that when grasped in determination, does not break (meaning being on the ‘right way’) and ALLAH is MOST PATIENT but the rules for such things are not in man’s hands or in his grasp of understanding.
And hold fast, all together, by the rope which ALLAH (stretches out for you), and be not divided among yourselves {in petty jealousies or arguments}; and remember with gratitude ALLAH’s favor on you; for you were enemies and HE joined your hearts in love, so that by HIS Grace, you became brethren; and you were on the brink of the pit of Fire, and HE saved you from it. Thus does ALLAH make HIS Signs clear to you: That you would be guided. Quran (3:103)
There can be no difficulty to the Prophet in what ALLAH has indicated to him as a duty. It was the practice (approved) of ALLAH amongst those of old that have passed away. And the Command of ALLAH is a decree determined. Quran (33:38)
And WE have enjoined on man (to be good) to his parents: in travail upon travail did his mother bear him, and in years twain was his weaning: (hear the command), “Show gratitude to ME and to your parents: to ME is (your final) Goal.
“But if they strive to make you join in worship with ME things of which you have no knowledge, obey them not; yet bear them company in this life with justice (and consideration), and follow the way of those who turn to ME (in love): in the end the return of you all is to ME, and I will tell you the truth (and meaning) of all that you did.” Quran (31:14-15)
Hence, the rewards of final success are not in the hands of men as to their determination but in the Hands of ALLAH based on what HE has ‘set up’ and if such an enlightened soul like Jesus (pbh) doesn’t know about it, then how can we fathom such things?
Other than worshiping ALLAH, one should not concern oneself with the concept of predestination as that would cause man to flounder in a rabbit hole of doubt and insecuritygiving them a false sense of security or retreat. So, well-rounded Muslims acknowledge the existence of predestination but don’t spend ‘futile time’ playing around in the unknown.
What Muslims know is that there is no contest between Satan and ALLAH where there is doubt about who will win. In truth, ALLAH won before Satan got into the game basically because an ‘arrogant fool’ always ends up a total loser even when it appears he is winning. How could these things come about?
Originally, it appears that various behaviors were somehow shaped in the dimension or in the heavens where souls inhabited before or during the creation of the Earth. Of this knowledge, we are given only a tiny smattering from hadiths featuring the hadith about ‘souls as troupes’before entering into this sphere of influence called Earth.
Since ‘Aisha, Abu Huraira and ‘Ubayy bin Ka’b didn’t provide us with information about what they didn’t know, then it is not fitting for us to ‘bake up falsehoods’ just to invent stories about which we would definitely be asked about on the Last Day of Judgment and which we would be responsible for.
Abu Huraira reported ALLAH’s Messenger (pbh) Said that souls are troops collected together and those who familiarized with each other (in the heaven from where these come) would have affinity, with one another (in the world) and those amongst them who opposed each other (in the Heaven) would also be divergent (in the world). (Muslim)
Narrated Aishah: I heard the Prophet (pbh) say, “Souls are like recruited troops: Those who are like {in their} qualities are inclined to each other, but those who have dissimilar qualities, differ.”* (Bukhari)
{*The above also explains a type of ‘birds of a feather flock together’ concept and also reinforces ‘groups headed for the Hell-Fire’ as they joined together to frustrate ALLAH’s PLAN which of course these losers would never be able to accomplish in the end! And we further hear about these foolish ones in the Quranic Chapter number 2 (Sura al-Baqaraah) as they try and fool the Believers by pretending to be one of them!}
For if we did have a tendency to worship other than HIM (ALLAH), we would be like those in the past whose stories of ‘make believe’ were at some time turned into ‘gods’ to be prayed to and worshiped like the story of the good men who lived in Noah’s time (pbh) who were eventually raised up to be idols by some Arabs in Jahiliyah (hadith).
The wise know and trust in their LORD and the example for the human success story to follow – Prophet Muhammad’s (pbh) way (Quran and his Sunnah) in the ‘blessed kingdom’ under the Christ-soul and Madhi to come. For their faith is the chosen faith and the wise man or woman will put their faith in that which is sure!
‘Ali reported that one day ALLAH’s Messenger (pbh) was sitting with a wood in his hand and he was scratching the ground. He raised his head and said: There is not one amongst you who has not been allotted his seat in Paradise or Hell. They said: ALLAH’s Messenger then why should we perform good deeds, why not depend upon our destiny? Thereupon he said. No, do perform good deeds, for everyone is facilitated in that for which he has been created; then he recited this verse: “Then, who gives to the needy and guards against evil and accepts the excellent (the truth of Islam and the path of righteousness it prescribes), WE shall make easy for him the easy end. But as for him who is stingy and complacent and denies goodness. WE will ease his way towards difficulty. And his money {positon/power} will not avail him when he plummets {towards the Fires of Hell}. It is upon US to guide.” Quran (92:5-12) (Muslim)
So the POWER resides in ALLAH so we must trust in HIM because ‘it is upon HIM to provide that Guidance and Sure Way for that is HIS PROMISE to us as human beings or one can say: ‘Put your trust in ALLAH’ – the ONE you can’t see but the ONE WHOM you believe in right down to your very existence which humans seem to hold more precious than gold!
A’isha reported that ALLAH’s Messenger (pbh) said: “Observe moderation (in doing deeds), and if you fail to observe it perfectly, try to do as much as you can do (to live up to this ideal of moderation) and be happy for none would be able to get into Paradise because of his deeds alone. They (the Companions of the Holy Prophet) said: ALLAH’s Messenger, not even you? Thereupon he said: Not even I, but that ALLAH wraps me in HIS Mercy, and bear this in mind that the deed loved most by ALLAH is one which is done constantly even though it is small. (Muslim)
And as Paul declared:
And if you are Christ’s {that is if you are true believers in the heart and not just by the mouth}, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the Promise {GIVEN BY THE ONE GOD HIMSELF so as to reside in the paradise on Earth in the Islamic government and then be graced and glorified in the PARADISE IN THE HEAVENS that never ends even when time itself ends}. Galatians (3:29)
So it is not the children of the flesh {meaning just any human that is born} who are GOD’s children {favored, created souls}, but it is {only} the children of the Promise who are regarded as offspring {one from the other or those (who are classified as the True Believers) who shall inherit Eternal Happiness in Paradise}. Romans (9:8)
Indeed, ALLAH chose Adam and Noah and the family of Abraham and the family of ‘Imran over the worlds. Quran (3:33)
This then is the ‘content of belief-form’ not so much mentioning genetic form, which is abhorrent and which might lead to which race is superior, but that of ‘TRUE BELIEF’ as in ‘The Family of Believers’ which is a spiritual domain and not a flashy, physical one which, in truth, decays when the body dies!
Life continues!