رسائلِ نور میں عقیدۂ تقدیر کی تعبیر و تشریح: ایک علمی و فکری جائزہ

The Interpretation and Explanation of the Doctrine of Predestination (Qadar) in the Rasāʾil-i Nūr: A Scholarly and Intellectual Review

Abstract

This article offers an analytical study of the doctrine of divine decree and predestination (al-qaḍāʾ wa-l-qadar) as expounded by Badīʿ al-Zamān Saʿīd Nūrsī in the Risale-i Nur. It begins with a lexical and technical clarification of qaḍāʾ and qadar. It then grounds the doctrine in its four stages (marātib), namely divine knowledge, inscription, will, and creation, each substantiated by Qurʾanic evidence. Against the historical backdrop of the early polarization between the Qadariyya, the Jabriyya, and the Muʿtazila, and the mediating position of the Ashʿarī and Māturīdī schools, the study examines Nūrsī's methodology. He treats qadar not as an abstract kalām controversy but as a source of spiritual reassurance and ethical responsibility. Four themes are analysed. The first is the compatibility of qadar with partial human volition (al-juzʾ al-ikhtiyārī), which, Nūrsī argues, guards the believer against arrogance while preserving moral accountability. The second is the relationship between divine knowledge and the object known (maʿlūm), which shows that eternal knowledge is descriptive rather than coercive. The third is the problem of the creation of good and evil, resolved by distinguishing divine creation from human acquisition (kasb). The fourth is the consolation of qadar in adversity, where trials are read as purposeful and as conducive to patience, gratitude, and righteous action. The study contends that Nūrsī's approach, which combines Qurʾanic exegesis, rational argumentation, and illustrative analogies, yields a coherent mediating position. This position refutes both determinism and Muʿtazilī voluntarism, answers naturalistic reductionism, and renders the doctrine existentially meaningful.