Destiny

[my21098]

Re: Destiny

@lethal_kamikaze

Peace,

I wasn’t satisfy with the answer of life01, quoted by 5amra at post# 3. I started reading books (Divine Will & Book of Destiny) alongwith translation and tafseer of Holy Qur’an. I came to this about ‘Destiny’:

**Book ‘Divine Will (Al-Qadar)’ of Sahih Bukhari Hadith No. 593.
**
Narrated 'Abdullah: Allah’s Apostle the truthful and truly-inspired, said, "Each one of you collected in the womb of his mother for forty days, and then turns into a clot for an equal period (of forty days) and turns into a piece of flesh for a similar period (of forty days) and then Allah sends an angel and orders him to write four things, i.e., his provision, his age, and whether he will be of the wretched or the blessed (in the Hereafter). Then the soul is breathed into him. And by Allah, a person among you (or a man) may do deeds of the people of the Fire till there is only a cubit or an arm-breadth distance between him and the Fire, but then that writing (which Allah has ordered the angel to write) precedes, and he does the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters it; and a man may do the deeds of the people of Paradise till there is only a cubit or two between him and Paradise, and then that writing precedes and he does the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it."

**The Book of Destiny (Kitab-ul-Qadr) of Sahih Muslim, Hadith No. 6398
**
Ali r.a.a reported: **We were at a funeral in the graveyard of Gharqad that Allah’s Messenger came to us and we sat around him. He had a stick with him. He lowered His head and began to scratch the earth with the stick, and then said: There is not one amongst you whom a scat in Paradise or Hell has not been allotted and about whom it has not been written down whether he would be an evil person or a blessed person. A person said: Allah’s Messenger, should we not then depend upon our destiny and abandon our deeds? Thereupon he said: Acts of everyone will be facilitated in, that which has been created for him so that whoever belongs to the company of the blessed will have good works made easier for him and whoever belongs to the unfortunate ones will have evil acts made easier for him. He then recited this verse (from the Qur’an):" **Then, who gives to the needy and guardsagainst evil and accepts the excellent (the truth of Islam and the path of righteousness it prescribes), We shall make easy for him the easy end and who is miserly and considers himself above need, We shall make easy for him the dificult end". [Surah Al Lail].

Tafsir of above verses (in green) is as follow: "**There are wide contrast in the nature and aims of men. These may be broadly divided into two classes, good and evil. As night replaces day on account of certain relative positions, but does not annihilate it, so evil may for a time obscure good, but cannot blot it out. Again, night in certain circumstances (e.g., for rest) is a blessing; so certain things, which may seem evils to us, may be really blessings in disguise. Whatever our aims or positions, we must seek the highest truth from the light of Almighty Allah.

The good are distinguished here by three signs:

1. ***Large-hearted sacrifices for Almighty Allah and men
   ***2. ***Fear of Almighty Allah, which shows itself in righteous conduct, for ‘Taqwa’ includes just action as well as a mental state
   **3. **Truth and sincerity in ever recognising and supporting all that is morally beautiful, for “Husn (used in verse)” in the good as well as the beautiful.

So far from there being any hardship in a good life, the righteous will enjoy their life more and more, and Almighty Allah will make their path smoother and smoother until they reach eventual Bliss.

‘Taqwa’ explained in very first Chapter-II verse-II, III signify as:

**1. **The fear of Almighty Allah, which is the beginning of wisdom
**2. ***Restraint, or guarding one’s tongue, hand, and heart from evil, hence righteousness, piety, good conduct (all these ideas are implied in the translation).

*All bounties proceed from Almighty Allah, they may be physical gifts, i.e. food, clothing, houses, gardens, wealth, etc., or intangible gifts i.e., influence, power, birth and the opportunities flowing from it, health, talents, etc., or spiritual gifts i.e., insight into good and evil, understanding of men, the capacity for love, etc. We are to use all in humility and moderation. But we are also to give out of every one of them something that contributes to be the well-being of others. We are to be neither ascetics nor luxurious sybarites, neither selfish misers nor thoughtless prodigals.

Lastly, there are two catergories: those who are in the darkness of wrath and those who stray. The first are those who deliberrately break Almighty Allah’s law. The second those who stray out of carelessness on negligence. Both are responsible for their own acts or omissions. In opposition to both are the people who are in the light of Almighty Allah’s Grace, fo His Grace not only protect them from active wrong (if they will only submit their will to Him) but also from astraying into paths of temptation or carelessness. The negative “gair (word in verse)” should be construed as applying not the way, but as describing men protected from two dangers by Almighty Allah’s Grace.

My understanding is that its all pre-destinated. Like if we are playing a game we control all the movment of a character in the game but if we leave that character as it is for a minute than that character move by itself (do an auto action) and that movement is our life, I mean free-will in this world where we have choice either to do good or evil deeds, as explained above. My understanding could be wrong, if so than correct me.

Agreed to some level, here’s what I think:

When we say ‘Predestined’ it seems as though we are robots of God, but at the same time, we are told that we have a free will. I have an explanation for this through the following example:
Let’s suppose you’re walking down the street minding your own business. Suddenly you hear a boy screaming in the street, you go to check it out and see that two men are
edited beating that child, nearby there is a handicapped person on a chair who can’t help the kid but is making Dua that someone saves him. Now here you are, with three choices:

1. Save the kid - Mustahabb (Recommended Good Deed)
2. Even though you can help the kid you just pass on - Makruh (Discouraged slightly bad deed)
3. Join the men and *edited beat the kid and enjoy - (**edited **Sin)
   Allah already knows, what choice you will make, so it’s already written in the Preserved Tablet (However, this is Allah’s Absolute Knowledge, not His Will, what is written is not what will happen, but what will happen is what is written) Allah knows what will be the result of every option, because Allah knows what will happen, what is happening, what has happened, what did not happen, what will not happen, what is not happening and won’t happen. So in Allah’s knowledge what will happen is what is KNOWN to him, and the conclusion is His WILL. Like for example you choose option 1 and try your level best to save the kid, you run, you punch you kick, whatever you are doing is done by your own free will but was written in the Preserved Tablet through Allah’s knowledge, however, if Allah wills for those men to die, they will die, if not, they will not, but everything else is your own will, from the kid’s perspective, Allah probably tested him and FROM HIS OWN Perspective, you were part of his fate to save him and were SUPPOSED to be his savior while FROM YOUR OWN perspective, you did all of this from your own free will. Does it make sense? Fate/Destiny and Free Will vary from one person’s PERSPECTIVE to the other. One may do something out of his own free will, but from another person’s perspective he may be part of his fate. Don’t forget the guy who was handicapped and was making Dua, he saw that you came and saved the kid, so FROM HIS OWN perspective, his Dua changed Fate, however, FROM ALLAH’S PERSPECTIVE, his Dua was actually part of fate itself.
   To understand the concept of Dua, let’s look back at the story of Yunus (Jonah) Aalayhi Salaam. He was a (And of course, is, but not the current) Prophet, who gave up, got a small punishment from Allah, made Dua and got saved…wait…what? He made Dua and got saved? So if he didn’t make a Dua he wouldn’t be saved? NO…This is what we call Allah’s Planning. Allah knew that Prophet Yunus would give up but repent as well, so He caused events to take place in a way, that caused him to get in to a whale, Since Allah already knew everything, He caused this to happen which led this to happen which led this to happen which caused Yunus to give up which caused him (Out of his own free will) to get on a boat, but somewhere in another scenario Allah caused the clouds to form in a way which caused rain to fall perfectly exactly the moment Yunus left, and events happened in a way which made the sailor throw him over board, and in some other scenario things happened in a way which caused a whale to come in to the scene and open its mouth exactly at the moment Yunus fell in the water which caused him to get in the whale’s belly, - Allah knew he would repent - and then he repented and events occurred in a way that the Sun just had to rise the moment he repented and the whale just had to be close to a remote island and just had release the air in it at the perfect moment right after he was done with his Dua which caused him to get on the Island, and there just had to be a tree on the island which just had to be the cure for his body, and in another scenario while all of this was happening, his nation just had to realize their mistake when he was gone and - when he returned - were good Muslims, and for them, when they prayed for Yunus’ return events happened in a way that a day after when they were done with their Dua Yunus just had to get back. Get my point?
   I know this was really confusing but it can’t get any simpler than that. Allah’s Knowledge, Will and Planning are three different things.
   Secondly let me share my views on that Hadith in Bukhari 593. To understand this, let me state my points:
4. Allah LITERALLY Knows everything
5. We change are minds every day, and take a long time to come to a decision, and even after that we have the tendency to change our minds and intentions
6. We have a free will
7. Allah will make the path easier for us according to ourselves and our intentions, good path easier for good people, bad path easier for bad people
   So since humans change their minds so often, they have different intentions every other moment. Because of His absolute Knowledge, He knows every person better than he knows himself, and thus He knows a person’s final decisions as well. Based on His Knowledge, He causes events to happen in a way that – depending on whether in the end the person would be good or bad – would make the life easier for him. Get my point? Like for example there is a very rich person, who is very greedy and selfish, he NEVER gave Zakat and commits all sorts of sins, but still Allah has given him loads wealth. When his death is near, a few years before his time, he starts giving Zakat out of his own free will, so much that it makes up for all the sins he committed in his life, then he dies and goes to heaven. Get my point? And Assalam U Alaikumm, and tell me what you think of my signature.