I have written upon me in the Preserved Tablet matters of which I am ignorant, whether good or evil, and I wish to present my answer to you, so I say:

The questioner : If you permit me... by the way, there are two questions... the students at the community college are asking a question along the lines of what you mentioned: "I have been written in the Preserved Tablet matters, I am ignorant of them, good or evil. My answer, I want to present it to you. If I am on the right, I will take it, and if I am in error, I will return from it." I say to the students: that everything written in the Preserved Tablet is originally in the knowledge of Allah, but I, as a human being, have not been informed to follow this path or that path. Rather, intellect has been placed for me. Intellect says to me: this path is good, so follow it, and it will lead you to good. This path is the path of evil, and it will lead you to the Fire, so stay away from it. So if we hypothetically assume that Allah the Exalted, in His prior knowledge, has written that I will do evil, then when I intended to do evil, I realized with my intellect that this is evil, so I withdrew from it and did good. And I relied on His saying, the Exalted:

The Shaykh :

The questioner : So what is your opinion of this answer, if you permit me? I mean, I am anxious about it.

The Shaykh : By Allah, there is something of error in the answer, because we cannot conceive that it was prior in the knowledge of Allah that I will do evil, and then I deviate from it. This is impossible. We end up with divine decree, but our ending up with divine decree is not by force and not against our will, but rather as we explained just now. And now we give an illustrative example: a school principal, and you are talking about the students. A sharp student, under his full supervision, and he has lived with them for a few years. He is able to say that so-and-so the student, orThe student : will succeed at the end of the year, and indeed he succeeds. Why? Because from his supervision of them and his practice and so on, he knows that this is a sharp, diligent student, not lazy and so on. So he gives the result before it is issued. And this is a weak human being. And our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, whose knowledge is intrinsic and not acquired like our knowledge, so by His prior knowledge, as I explained just now, He knows so-and-so when the command to believe comes to him, whether he will believe or disbelieve. So He writes him as a believer if it was prior in His knowledge that he will believe, and He writes him as a disbeliever if it was prior in His knowledge that he will disbelieve. And therefore, the conception mentioned earlier in this example is a contradiction that we cannot conceive of at all. The reality of the matter is like what came in some songs, and rarely do they speak the truth: "What is written on the forehead, the eye must see." What is this speech? Correct, even if it is in a song. As we said today, not everything the Sufi says is false. He may say "There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah," and this is truth. So everything recorded for a person must happen as it was recorded. But we studied the topic of guidance, that the one guided to this guidance is not forced into it, but rather what he will do is recorded for him in advance, like this student whose teacher judged that he will succeed, and conversely, so-and-so will fail because he knows him day and night. From where will he succeed? So he is a failure. So this must be the answer: not on the assumption that it was written on me that I will do evil, so I judged with my intellect that this is evil and I do not have to do it, and I returned from it. You must assume that this discussion, this trial that you mentioned last, is written in the Preserved Tablet. For example, it is written in the Preserved Tablet that so-and-so from among people it occurs to him that he will go out to celebrate this night, a red night. It occurs to him like this. He discusses the matter: what is the benefit of me going out to celebrate this red night? I spend my strength, my health, my money, I waste my family, my children, and so on. No, by Allah, I will not go out to it, and he remained in his house. All of this is written in the Preserved Tablet. As for something being written in the Preserved Tablet and something else happening, that is impossible. As for the verse, it has absolutely no relation to our topic. from the laws and rulings, and He establishes therein what He wills, namely the Preserved Tablet which contains the clear and the abrogated, that which He decided to keep and continue its ruling, and that which was lifted. So this has a relation to the laws, not to the works of divine decree and destiny.

The questioner : So the hadith:

The Shaykh : All of this is what passes through the soul and what a person talks about. All of it is recorded. But the matter—yes, but this is not the point—as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: Like this. This trial that you assumed in the soul of that person, and what is the end? He wants to do the evil, and before that it was written in the Preserved Tablet that he would do it. He does not want to do it, he will not do it, because deeds are by their endings.