Quranic Exegesis by Ibn Kathir on Predestination

Abstract

The issue of predestination of human’s fate has triggered plenty of discussions in Islam during many centuries. A number of roots are used in description of this topic in the Quran. The author pointed out three prominent roots and analysed their usage relying on commentary to the Quran written by one of the most prominent Muslim scholars – Ibn Kathir. The study resulted in finding out the most frequent root used in description of predestination, the author also gives statistics on reflection of the topic in different periods of Quran’s revelation. The author attempts to find out the reasons why not the most frequent roots were used in the name of the theme in the Islamic doctrine.