Al-Ḥakam - The Arbiter Supreme The Decider
He is the One who passes judgement, the Arbitrator, the Judge whose judgment is accepted, the One whose judgement is not rejected and whose decree is not revised. One of His judgements in respect of man is that “man hath only that for which he maketh effort and that his effort will be seen”, and that “the righteous verily will be in delight. And lo, the wicked verily will be in hell”. The meaning of the righteous and the wicked in terms of happiness and distress is that (God) makes good or evil to be a cause which leads the one who practices them to happiness or distress, even as God makes medications and poisons the causes which lead those who take them to recovery and destruction. If the meaning of wisdom is the ordering and directing of the causes to the effects, then He is an absolute arbiter because He is the one who causes all causes in general and in particular.
The divine decree and predestination branch out from this judgement. His planning the origin of the setting of the causes in such a way that they are directed to the effects is His judgement. His setting up the universal, original, established and fixed causes which neither disappear nor change, such as the earth, the seven heavens, the stars, the celestial bodies and their harmonious and eternal movements which do not change and do not cease to exist “until (the term) prescribed is run”, is His decree; even as He says, “Then He ordained them seven heavens in two days and inspired in each heaven its mandate”.
The directing by these causes, (that is to say), of their harmonious, circumscribed, preordained and calculated movements towards the effects resulting from them minute after minute is God’s predestination. For judgement is the first and universal planning and the first command which is “a twinkling of the eye”. The decree is the universal setting of the universal and eternal causes. Predestination is the direction of the universal causes with their preordained and calculated actions to the effects which are circumscribed and limited to a determined quantity which neither increases nor decreases. For this reason nothing escapes from His decree and His predestination.
You have understood from the example already mentioned what share man has of wisdom, planning, decreeing and determining. That is a (comparatively) simple matter. However, the important things pertaining to him are those dealing with the planning of religious and spiritual exercises and the determining of policies which will produce benefits both religious and secular. In this way God appoints His servants as agents on the earth and settles them in (this capacity) so that He might observe how they act. As for his religious portion dealing with this characterization of God Most High, the answer is (to be found in) his (Muhammad’s) words – may blessings and peace be upon him – “Work! Everyone is helped to that for which he was created”. The meaning of this is that when happiness has been decreed for a man, it has been decreed by means of a cause, and the causes of (happiness) are made easy for him, namely, obedience. When distress has been decreed for a man, it has been decreed by means of a cause, namely, his idleness in not engaging in the causes of (happiness). The cause of his idleness may well be found in his thinking that “if I am (to be) happy, there is no need for activity; and if I am (to be) wretched, activity will be of no advantage to me”. But this is ignorance, for he is not aware of the fact that if he is (to be) happy, he will be happy only because the knowledge and activity which cause happiness were given to him. If they are not made easy for him and are not given to him, it is a sign of his distress.
An example of this (may be found in) the one who desires to be a jurist and to reach the grade of the Leader. One says to him, “Exert yourself! Learn! Persevere!” He answers, “If God has decreed the leadership for me from the beginning of time, the effort will not be necessary. If God has decreed ignorance for me, the effort will be of no advantage to me”.
One says to him (in reply), “If this thought gains mastery over you, it will indicate that God has decreed ignorance for you. But he for whom the leadership has been decreed from the beginning, he has been decreed it (only) through its causes”. The causes will be given to him and he will put them to use, and the inclinations which induce him to laziness and idleness will be driven away from him. But the one who does not make an effort definitely will not attain the grade of the leader at all, whereas the one who makes an effort and has the causes of it made easy for him, (finds) his hope of attaining the leadership coming true if he perseveres with his effort to the end and does not meet an obstacle that will block his path.
Similarly it is necessary to understand that a man does not attain happiness unless he comes to God with a sound heart. Soundness of the heart is an attribute that is acquired by effort, even as is the understanding of oneself and the understanding (of law required for) the leadership, there is no distinction (between them).
