Bada or Effacement and Affirmation in the View of the Quran and Traditions

Bada’ is one of the Shiite doctrines which has a particular position in traditions. However, a group of Sunnis have always used it as a pretext to bitterly criticize Shiite either unintentionally or out of ill will. It literally means that it is impossible for God to “change His decree”, because this entails the precedence of ignorance and contingency of knowledge, either of which is impossible for God who is all-knowing and all-aware. Bada’, which technically means changing predestined things by God according to some events and under certain conditions and factors is, as understood from many Quranic verses and traditions, is something possible. This doctrine is founded on three things: God's infinite knowledge, continuation of divine will in the universe and the possibility of changing man's predestination, considering man’s good or bad deeds". According to Islamic teachings, man can have a happy, peaceful and long life by performing such good deeds like donation, benevolence, supplication and seeking forgiveness from God. If, on the contrary, he treats others unfairly, cuts ties of kinship, separates himself from Gods and does other bad deeds he will leads a miserable life and his life span will be shortened.Using an analytical approach and reviewing the sources of two Islamic schools, i.e. the Shiites and the Sunnites, the present paper tries to prove that the idea of "Bada’" adopted by the Shiite is the same as the idea of change in the effacement and affirmation tablet adopted by the Sunnite, and that the controversy between the Shiite and the Sunnite has no sound basis.