قدر
Qaddara
To measure, assign and bring about according to plan; also to be able to make something happen.
What it means
Qaddara means to measure out, to assign a thing its measure and to bring it about according to a plan. It also carries the sense of having the power to make something happen. The Quran uses it of God, who created everything and ordained it in due measure (25:2), and states that He created all things by measure (54:49). From this root come qadar, the measure or decree that God has set, and qudrah, power, together with the divine name al-Qadīr, the All-Powerful. Muslim teaching on qadar holds that nothing happens outside God’s knowledge and ordering, while a person remains responsible for choices and conduct.
Often misunderstood as
That it means blind fate, when it points to a plan made by a knowing and powerful Lord.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 43, listed as QADDARA. The definition is restated here.