“The Lord has created and balanced all things and has fixed their destinies and guided them.” 87:2
Examples of the Laws of Nature
- Man came to this life without his will and he shall leave it without his will.
- Man cannot fly in the air with his body only.
- Man did not create the color of his eyes.
- Man did not produce the shape of his head nor the size of his body.
Examples of Natural Attributes in objects
- Allah created in fire the attribute of burning.
- In wood the attribute of catching fire.
- In the blade the attribute of cutting.
- Man’s lifespan (ajal), provision (rizq), and soul (ruH) are all from Allah.
- Allah created in man instincts and organic needs, and in these instincts and organic needs specific attributes.
- In the instinct of reproduction the attribute of sexual inclination.
- In the organic needs attributes such as hunger and thirst
Examples of Unintended Actions
- If someone shoots at a bird and the shot hits a person he was not aware of and kills him.
- If a car goes off the road or a train derails, or a plane crashes.
Man has no choice in this matter
- Allah created the law of the universe (wujood), without being able to function differently.
- The Universal Laws apply to kuffar and Muslims equally.
- He has no information about them nor the manner in which they came about.
- Man is not able to drive them away or avoid them at all.
- Man is not reckoned about these actions, whether they are beneficial, or harmful, or whether he liked or disliked them.
- Allah alone knows the good and bad in these actions – because man has no influence on them.
- If your response to the instincts and organic needs were according to the commands and prohibitions of Allah they would be termed good actions, and would be termed bad actions if they were in disagreement to the commands and prohibitions of Allah.
- Muslim should believe that actions beyond his sphere of influence are from Allah.
- He must also believe that Qadar – good or bad – is from Allah.
- Good is from Allah, bad is from man ?
Quran verses
Causation
- The acceptance of the principle of causation implies that the destiny of everything in existence depended on the causes preceding it.
- The Holy Qur’an endorses the doctrine of causation.
- It makes no difference whether we believe or not in a religion and the First Cause, that is the source of every determination.
- Every event acquires its inevitability and its characteristics of shape, size and quality from its cause or causes.
- Every school of thought which believes in the general system of causation has to accept the existence of this link of inevitability.
- Belief in destiny is not peculiar to the theists. The only difference is that the theists hold that the chain of causes at a dimension other than that of time or place ends at the Essential Being, Who is self-existent.
Predestination
- Predestination is a fundamental belief in Islam, acknowledging that everything that happens, be it good or bad, is by the Will of Allah.
- This means that human choices cannot effect the larger divine plan. This belief helps Muslims find contentment in every situation, knowing it’s part of a larger divine plan.
- Allah does not influence the events of the world directly. That is absolutely impossible. He necessitates the existence of a thing through its particular causes only. That everything is decreed by Allah simply means that the system of causation is subject to His Will and Knowledge.
- He knows from eternity that such and such event will take place at such and such time, and that event must perforce come into existence at that particular moment. No other factor affects the existence of that event.
- Human deeds and acts also emanate directly from the Will and Knowledge of Allah. The human will and power are only a facade or a mere illusion, and not actually effective in bringing about any event.
- Destiny means a link of inevitability between an event and its causes.
Miracles
- We cannot hope for out of the norm because that’s specific to the prophet SAW and the awliyah. We can hope for miracles, but we have to work with the apparent reality.
- Belief in Allah allows one to transcend the limitations of the physical world.
True predestinarianism
- We can say that there is no agent except Allah. This view, besides the practical and social evils which it entails is logically absurd. There is no doubt that it does not stand to reason. The system of causation or the connection of causes and effects is undeniable. Not only physical sciences and perceptual and experimental observations prove the existence of a system of causes and effects, but also there are very strong philosophical arguments in support of it.
- True predestinarianism, if held by a person or a nation, will certainly lead them to ruination.
- The words, fate and destiny have become awful and frightening because with the domination of the Ash’arite school in the Muslim world and it’s influenced over Islamic literature, these words have become synonymous with compulsion, lack of liberty and illogical control of human actions and behavior by an invisible force.
- There is absolutely no such thing as destiny if it means the denial of an inevitable connection between the causes and their effects. It will amount to the denial of human liberty and volition. In theology very strong and convincing arguments have been advanced to prove the baselessness of such an idea.
- If this view is upheld then as far as the question of destiny is concerned, there will be no difference between a theist and an atheist. The belief in destiny is corollary of the belief in the principle of causation. The only difference is that an atheist looks at the question from material angle only. He believes that the destiny of everything in existence is determined by the causes are not conscious of the work they do.
