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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Man and His Destiny Part 15: Could Allah’s Knowledge be Wrong? At the end of this discussion of fate and destiny it will not be out of place to take up the criticism made in this connection by the predestinarians and to analyze what they say They have adduced many and varied arguments to prove their theory. The Muslim predestinarians mainly rely on the Qur’anic verses regarding fate which we have already quoted.

Sometimes they cite the sayings of the Holy Prophet or the Imams in this connection. We have commented upon the intellectual arguments advanced by them in the footnotes of our book, ‘The Principles of Philosophy’. vol. III. The most famous argument which they have advanced concerns the Knowledge of Allah. They say that Allah knows from eternity what will happen. No event is hidden from His Eternal Knowledge. At the same time His Knowledge is unchangeable.

Any change in it will not be in keeping with His perfectness. It is not possible that anything should happen contrary to what He knows from eternity Otherwise His Knowledge will prove to be defective, and instead of being knowledge, it will become ignorance, which is again against the perfectness of His Being. Hence on the basis of the two premises that: Allah knows everything; and His Divine Knowledge is unchangeable and nothing can happen contrary to it.

It may be inferred logically, that every event in the world must take place in accordance with what He knows from eternity. Furthermore, Divine Knowledge is active and not passive, in the sense that in the case of Allah the known springs from His Knowledge of it, and His Knowledge is not based on the known as is the case with human knowledge of the things and the events.

On this basis of Allah knew that such and such person at such and such time would commit a sin, he is bound to commit it accordingly. It will not be possible for him to behave otherwise. No power on earth can stop him from committing that sin at the appointed time. Otherwise Allah’s Knowledge will prove wrong.

The world famous Persian poet Umar Khayyam says: I drink wine; and a sound person; Should have no objection to that; God knew from eternity that I would; If I don’t, His knowledge would amount to ignorance.