As Salaamu Alaykum Wa Rahmatullah,

The Messenger of Allah (Sallallahu Alayhi wa Sallam) said in a Hadith:

"The first thing Allah created was the pen, after which He commanded it to write. The pen asked its Lord what it should write. Allah said, "Write all that is to occur until the Day of Resurrection" (al-Tirmidhi #2081)
Although every single thing that has happened, is happening, or will happen has already been pre-destined by Allah Ta'ala and written on the preserved tabled (lawhim mahfuz), this does not mean that we will not be accountable for what we do in this life. This is a major confusion. Some people think that since everything has already been pre-destined, man has no free will in his actions and is under jabr, or compulsion, just as a feather is at the mercy of the winds; and that he has no choice even in his intentional actions. However, these beliefs are completely false and were main beliefs of groups such as the Jabriyaa and Jahmiyya, who had improper Aqeedah.

This is why when Imam Abu Hanifa (Rahmatullah Alayhi) says in his book of Aqeedah, Al-Fiqh al-Akbar:

"Yet His writing (on the preserved tablet) entails descriptions, not commands"

This statement is to deny compulsion in the actions of servants and to refute the belief of the Jabriyya.

Explaining the words of Imam Abu Hanifa (RA), it is said in Imam Abu Hanifa's Al-Fiqh al-Akbar explained:

Everything is written in the preserved tablet in complete detail as regards to its attributes, such as beauty, ugliness, width, length, smallness, largeness, paucity, abundance, lightness, heaviness, hotness, coldness, wetness, dryness, obedience, disobedience, will, power, acquisition, and other descriptions, conditions, and characteristics. Nothing is written in it as merely a command to occur without description or cause. For example, "Let Zayd be a believer and 'Amr an unbeliever" is not written in the tablet as such. Had it been that way, Zayd would have been involuntarily compelled to believe and 'Amr to disbelieve, because whatever Allah Ta'ala commands necessarily transpires. Allah Ta'ala commands, and there is none to rescind His command. Rather, it is written in the tablet that Zayd will be a believer through his own choice and power, and he will desire true Iman and not unbelief; and 'Amr will be an unbeliever through his own choice and power, and he will desire unbelief and not true faith.

An example by which the issues of predestination and compulsion may become more understandable is that of a teacher who works with a group of students for a number of years. Before administering a set of exams, he speculates on the grades his students will receive, writes them down on a piece of paper, and then leaves for vacation. When he comes back, he receives their actual scores and finds that most of his estimates are accurate or extremely close to the actual scores. It is quite clear that he was able to achieve such close approximation because of having worked with these students long enough to determine their capabilities and potential. As Allah is the Creator of all and is endowed with eternal knowledge of both the world and particular of things, His knowledge of all His creation is also on a very highly detailed and definitive level. In fact, He has knowledge of all things before they even occur as is stated in the Hadith that Allah Ta'ala had the pen write all that was to happen until the Day of Judgment. Then as each person comes into this world and does what they want to with their free will, their acts are in accordance with what is written by the pen on the preserved tablet, because Allah had this information from before, and not because they are being forced to do what is written.

The act of one's Dua changing taqdeer (pre-destiny) has also been written on the tablet. We had the opportunity to answer this question in detail on "AskImam". The link is as follows:

http://askimam.org/fatwa/fatwa.php?a...bad41ac257a27e

Allah Ta'ala says in the Quran:

"And of knowledge you have been given but little" (17:85)

It is impossible for anyone to comprehend the amount of knowledge that Allah Ta'ala has and to comprehend many matters in their entirety such as predestination. It is discouraged to talk about this subject too much, as is explained in our "askimam" answer.

I highly recommend everyone to purchase and read the book "Imam Abu Hanifa's Al-Fiqh al-Akbar Explained", which is translated by Mufti Abdur-Rahman ibn Yusuf, and is available on the web site for the publishing company "White Thread Press":

http://www.whitethreadpress.com/index.htm

Hopefully that helped InshaAllah. May Allah Ta'ala guide us all.

And Allah knows best