Fate and will predetermined
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's
Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:
From your explanation it seems that there is no choice rgds doing
good deeds in life or being evil if it has already been determined in the womb
by Allah SWT. Please clarify
(There
may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum
does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from
our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Mu' meneen Brothers and Sisters,
As Salaam Aleikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuh. (May Allah's
Peace, Mercy and Blessings be upon all of you)
One of our brothers/sisters has asked this question:
W.r.t the question 384-2466 I would like to ask if Allah already
decides the fate of the child i.e. his provisions, nature etc. then how can we
say that a human being has free will. Its natural that if a person
is destined to be an evil doer then he will behave that way.
Then what is the point of testing him/her. Please explain.
(There
may be some grammatical and spelling errors in the above statement. The forum
does not change anything from questions, comments and statements received from
our readers for circulation in confidentiality.)
Answer:
In the
name of Allah, We praise Him, seek His help and ask for His forgiveness.
Whoever Allah guides none can misguide, and whoever He allows to fall astray,
none can guide them aright. We bear witness that there is no one (no idol, no person,
no grave, no prophet, no
imam, no dai, nobody!) worthy of worship but Allah Alone,
and we bear witness that Muhammad(saws) is His slave-servant and the seal of
His Messengers.
We
sincerely apologize for not being able to clarify your questions to your
satisfaction, and none is to blame
except my own shortcomings. Beloved
brother, Islam is such a wide ocean of
knowledge, that it becomes practically
impossible for us to cover all aspects of the questions asked in a short
article of a couple of pages. Thus when
a brother or sister asks a general question,
we normally tend to give a general reply; and when a brother or sister asks a specific
question, we tend to give specific
answers. We absolutely accept and admit
our weakness and our shortcomings, and
sincerely seek your understanding and forgiveness as your brothers and
well-wishers in Islam.
May Allah
Subhanah increase your quest for the knowledge of Truth, expand your and our hearts to accept the
Guidance, help us, guide us,
have mercy upon us, forgive us
our short comings, and save you, us and all the believers from the torment of
the Hell Fire. Ameen.
Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 1.315 Narrated
by Anas bin Malik
The Prophet (saws) said, "At every womb Allah appoints an
Angel who says, 'O Lord! A drop of semen, O Lord! A clot. O Lord! A little lump
of flesh." Then if Allah wishes (to
complete) its creation, the Angel asks, (O Lord!) Will it be a male or
female, a wretched or a blessed, and how much will his provision be? And what
will his age be?' So all that is written
while the child is still in the mother's womb."
In light
of the above narration, four things are
predetermined:
Whether
the new born will be male or female.
What will
be his ‘rizk’ or provision.
What
day, date, and place he will die.
Whether
the person will be an evil or good person.
We would
just like to clarify here what is the actual reality of Fate or Destiny. To get a fuller understanding of Fate, it can be divided into two parts:
Part-1: One part of Fate is things over which the
person has absolutely no control. For
example, the three points in the above
hadith: Whether one will be born male or
female, what will his provision be, and what day,
date and place one will die.
These are the Decisions of Allah Subhanah Alone, and no matter how much a person makes
supplication to Allah Subhanah, he cannot
change his sex from male to female, or
change his appointment with death, etc.
Part-2: The second part of fate is not a Decision or
Decree from Allah Subhanah, but is the
knowledge of the All-Knowing, All-Wise
Lord. For example, it is written down before one is born whether
he will be a good or evil person! It is
not as if Allah Subhanah is (I seek refuge in Allah from saying this)
unjust, and has already condemned
someone to be evil, so he has to become
evil!!! Because Allah Subhanah is the
All Knowing, He already knows from His
Absolute Knowledge and Wisdom, what the
person with the given free will and intelligence will do in the future; and thus what is written is not a Decision
from Allah Subhanah, but is written
because of the Absolute and Perfect Knowledge of Allah Subhanah.
Allah
Subhanah has given mankind (and Jinns) two things which he has not given any
amongst His creation:
Intelligence
or the Power of Reasoning
A Free
Will to choose whatever path he wishes to follow.
And these
are precisely the things for which Allah Subhanah will take account from each
individual on the Day of Judgement. Any
person who, with his given faculty of
intelligence strives and seeks the Straight Path and of his own Free Will
accepts, obeys and follows it, will be rewarded by Allah Subhanah. The person who with his given faculty of
intelligence and power of reasoning denies the ordained Straight Path of Allah
Subhanah, and of his own free will
rejects it, will have a severe
accounting on that Inevitable Day.
Anything
or any deed a person does which involves his own intelligence and the making of
a choice, or an intention or an effort to do the deed, will be considered a deed done of his own
free will; and thus he will have to
account for it in the Just Court of Allah Subhanah.
For
example, these deeds will be considered
from one’s Free Will:
A person
intends and strives to seek the Path of Truth,
learns the Quran, prays the
Salaat, pays charity, fasts,
performs pilgrimage, etc..
A person
is obedient to his parents, honors
them, obeys them, etc.
A person
is honest, truthful, sincere, etc.
A person
is dishonest, lies, cheats,
and steals from people, etc.
A person
commits zina, drinks alcohol, murders people, etc.
A person
never bothers or intends to seek the Guidance of Truth, nor follows it.
And the
things over which one has absolutely no control and no choice, Allah Subhanah will not question him about
these things on the Day of Judgement.
For
example, these are some of things a
person will not be held accountable for in the Court of Allah Subhanah:
Why was
he born black, or white, brown,
etc.?
Why did
he not earn millions of dollars every year?
Why did
he die in
Why did
he die at age 42 and not age 89?
Why he
had only two eyes and not six?
Why was
he only 5ft. tall and not 7ft.?
Every
thing that happens in this Universe happens with the Permission and Will of
Allah Subhanah. The only free will one
has is to make an intention to do a good or evil deed, and strive and make efforts to fulfill that
intention; and that is precisely what
he will be held accountable for. The
outcome of the effort is in the Sole Control and Domain of Allah Subhanah.
For
example, if a person of his own free
will intends to build a hospital or an orphanage, etc. to earn the Pleasure of
Allah Subhanah, and strives his utmost
in fulfilling that intention; he will
receive a full reward from Allah Subhanah,
whether or not the building of the hospital or orphanage is completed or
not.
Similarly, if a person of his own free will, intends to kill someone, and subsequently does all in his power to
kill the person; whether or not the
victim is actually murdered, the person
will have a severe accounting in the Court of Allah Subhanah, unless he seeks repentance before his
appointment of death.
Allah
Subhanah does not stop the person making the intention, or from striving to make efforts to fulfill
that intention; and that is precisely
the test for which mankind will be held accountable for. Whether or not the striving of the person
comes to actual fruitation, is in the
Sole Control and Domain of Allah Subhanah.
Sahih Al-Bukhari Hadith 1.51 Narrated
by Umar bin Al Khattab
The Messenger of Allah (saws) said, "The reward of deeds
depends upon the intentions, and every
person will get the reward according to what he has intended.”
Thus, in
conclusion, Allah has bestowed upon man the ‘free will’ to choose whether he
intends to do good or evil; and that is precisely the test that the All
Knowing, All Wise Lord has Decreed for mankind in the life of this world. Indeed, Allah Subhanah, because of His
Perfect and Absolute Knowledge, Knows exactly what the result of the person
being tested will be; but in His Perfect and Absolute Justice, He has permitted
man to choose his intentions and his deeds.
Only if one
tries to recognize and balance the Noble Attributes of Allah Subhanah being The
All-Knowing (Al-Aleem) and His also being The All-Just (Al-Aadil), will he be
able to comprehend the exact meaning of fate, decree, and free-will.
Whatever
written of Truth and benefit is only due to Allah’s Assistance and Guidance,
and whatever of error is of me. Allah
Alone Knows Best and He is the Only Source of Strength.
Your Brother in Islam,
Burhan
Wister