Understanding the Role of Prayer in Destiny

If evil and good are predestined, why

pray in both cases?

Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon the trustworthy Messenger of God

and upon his good and pure family and Companions. To proceed.

This is one of Satan's misconceptions about supplication.

Its essence is that if God has decreed good for me, it will come to me even if I do not

pray. So what is the benefit of supplication in bringing good?

And if Almighty God has decreed evil for me, evil will come to me

even if I pray to God to avert it from me. So what is the benefit of supplication in bringing

good things and warding off harm if good things have been decreed, and if

harmful things have been decreed? This is a great misconception.

This is a great misconception,

but its answer is easy, by the permission of Almighty God.

That is because this misconception is based on an error in the question itself.

The question is flawed because it confines predestination to

two possibilities. He says, “If God has decreed good for me,

or decreed evil for me.”

Thus, confining the question to these two types is what gives rise to this misconception.

this misconception.

The explanation of its answer is that we say:

Predestination, according to us, Ahl al-Sunnah wa'l-Jama'ah, is divided into

Two types:

an irrevocable decree and a conditional decree.

By the irrevocable decree, we mean

what God Almighty wrote in the Preserved Tablet.

Whatever God Almighty wrote for you in the Preserved Tablet

cannot be subject to change,

alteration, erasure, affirmation, increase, or

decrease.

The pens have dried and the scrolls have been folded. What is in the Preserved Tablet is final.

Scholars call this the irrevocable decree, and some

call it the absolute decree, which is not subject

to increase, erasure, affirmation, or anything of that sort.

So every good thing God wrote for you in the Preserved Tablet

will come to you, even if you do not pray for it.

And everything evil God wrote against you in the

Preserved Tablet will come to you, even if you ask God Almighty

not to let it come to you. But note that there is good whose writing is

conditional, and evil whose writing is

conditional, which Ahl al-Sunnah wal-Jama'ah call the conditional decree.

This means that there are blessings God

Almighty wrote for you in the angels' records, and made supplication the cause of their coming.

If you pray, they will come to you, and if you do not

pray, they will not come to you.

There are also evils in the angels’ records that have been written for you,

and their coming to you has been tied to supplication. If

you pray, God will avert them from you, and if you do not, they will come to you.

Thus, supplication benefits in this category, but not in

the first category.

If you are asked, “What is the benefit of supplication?” say, “For contingent good,

to bring it about, or contingent evil, to ward it off.”

This is what God Almighty says about it: “God effaces

what He wills and confirms,” meaning, in the contingent decree,

that is, in the scrolls in the hands of the angels.

Thus, God Almighty may have decreed good for you,

but not an irrevocable decree, rather a decree

contingent upon supplication. He says, “Write

for My servant such-and-such good. If he prays for it,

it will come to him.” This is the good for which

supplication is beneficial, to bring it about. Thus, supplication benefits in what is

of the nature of the contingent decree. God may have written

good things for you but made them contingent upon supplication, or written

evil for you and made it contingent upon supplication. If

you pray for the contingent good, it will come to you, and if you pray

for the contingent evil to be averted, it will turn away from you,

Supplication benefits in conditional decree, but it does not

benefit in irrevocable decree.

If you pray to God for an irrevocably decreed good,

it will come to you whether you pray or not,

but if you pray to God for a conditionally decreed good,

whose decree depends on supplication, this is what

supplication brings and God Almighty grants you by His grace

and favor.

Likewise, if you pray to God Almighty to avert an evil

written against you in irrevocable decree,

then supplication is of no use in

preventing it from coming down, because it has been decreed

in irrevocable decree. But supplication benefits in

warding off conditional evil. There is

irrevocable decree and conditional decree. Whoever

does not distinguish between them is the one who has this

issue. So when someone asks, “What is the benefit of supplication in bringing

good if God has written it?” We say, “No, if He

wrote it in irrevocable decree, it will come to you even if you do not pray,

but if He wrote it in conditional decree, it will not

come to you until after you pray. So supplication benefits in

conditionally decreed good.”

And if someone asks us, “What is the benefit of supplication in

averting evil if God has written it against me?”

We say, “No, wait. If He wrote it against you in decree”

As for the irrevocable decree, supplication will not avert it because it

must inevitably come to pass. Nothing changes the irrevocable decree, but

supplication is beneficial in warding off

contingent evil. If you are asked, “What is the scope of benefiting

from supplication?” then say, “In seeking contingent goodness

and warding off contingent evil.” Does supplication

help? Yes, but in this category of divine judgment and decree.

Perhaps the matter is now clear. And Allah knows best. May Allah’s blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad.