However to discuss this matter in detail would be out of the scope of this book...

However to discuss this matter in detail would be out of the scope of this book, therefore we shall, in very brief, see what traditions and scholars of our sect say about it: I say: The meaning of Bada is that Allah, the Mighty and Sublime destines something, after that He changes it. This is possible according to reason and correct according to Islamic texts due to the universal and eternal power of the Almighty Allah.

A large number of verses of the Holy Qur’an and traditions have been recorded that prove its validity and the reason that Sunnis oppose this belief is that according to them it would imply that Allah, the Mighty and Sublime was ignorant of the second matter and unaware of its wisdom, Allah is in higher exaltation than this.

Therefore in the refutation of this view there is a tradition of His Eminence, Abu Abdillah Sadiq (as) that he said: “There is no Bada in anything except that it had been in His knowledge before Bada occurs in it.” And it is this meaning that is conveyed by numerous traditional reports in Usool Kafi , Tawheed Sadooq and Biharul Anwar .[^2] And the investigation of the matter in such a way that veils of false notions are removed is in the following way: As mentioned in traditions all the occurrences are of two types: inevitable and conditional.

Inevitable is one that its actualization – from the view of existence or non-existence – is not dependant on anything. Rather the Almighty Allah has destined and decreed it, and written it with the pen of determination. And conditional occurrences are ones whose existence or absence is related to some conditions…