The ruling on saying: “This happened by chance”
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Question:
And now, is it permissible for a person to say, “This matter happened by chance”?
Answer:
No, it is not permissible. There is nothing that happens by chance except that it is decreed and destined. However, if he qualifies it by saying it was a chance occurrence for him, meaning he did not expect it or anticipate it, then it is a chance occurrence for him, and there is no harm in that. But if he means by “chance” that it was not decreed and did not precede in the knowledge of Allah, that is disbelief (kufr), disbelief in the divine decree and destiny (qada' wa qadar). But I do not think a believer intends that meaning. He intends the first meaning, that it was a chance occurrence for him, that he did not think or expect that he would meet this person or see this thing. It was a chance occurrence for him. Yes.
And now, is it permissible for a person to say, “This matter happened by chance”?
Answer:
No, it is not permissible. There is nothing that happens by chance except that it is decreed and destined. However, if he qualifies it by saying it was a chance occurrence for him, meaning he did not expect it or anticipate it, then it is a chance occurrence for him, and there is no harm in that. But if he means by “chance” that it was not decreed and did not precede in the knowledge of Allah, that is disbelief (kufr), disbelief in the divine decree and destiny (qada' wa qadar). But I do not think a believer intends that meaning. He intends the first meaning, that it was a chance occurrence for him, that he did not think or expect that he would meet this person or see this thing. It was a chance occurrence for him. Yes.
Source
شرح العقيدة الطحاوية [5] — alfawzan.live (1:04:52)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.