The human being, a free-willed creature under the auspices of predestination

Fate in Islam

As much as I champion the importance of detailed evidence-based knowledge and understanding of Islamic creed, I strictly avoid detail on any theological or sharia issues with new Muslims fresh from the matrix. I believe it is important to depict Islam as having survived the kind of theological schisms that Christianity fell victim to. This topic is given exception because it is a frequent cause of confusion among new Muslims shortly after they make the declaration of faith.

One of the most famous, yet brief, compilations of hadeeth is called “The Forty Hadeeth” by Imam al-Nawawi. This imam chose 40+ Prophetic narrations that encompass the spirit of Islam from different angles. They are a favorite collection to teach in masjids and are frequently given to new Muslims without much thought as to whether this is the best collection for Western converts or not.

In spite of that, the fourth hadeeth in the collection has a very troubling portent in its text, suggesting that no matter what we humans strive for is of no value, since Allah will steer us however He wants, and reward or punish us based on that. Read it yourself, as Abdullah ibn Mas`ud said:

The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), and he is the truthful, the believed, narrated to us, “The creation of each one of you is certainly brought together in his mother’s womb for forty days in the form of a drop, then he becomes like a clot of blood for a like period, then like a morsel of flesh for a similar period, then the angel is sent who blows the soul into him and the angel is commanded with four matters: to write down his sustenance, his life span, his actions, and whether he will be happy or unhappy (in the Hereafter).

By the One with Whom there is no other; one of you certainly performs the actions of the people of Paradise [as it seems to onlookers] until there is but an arms length between him and it, and that which has been written overtakes him, and so he performs the actions of the people of the Hellfire and thus enters it. And one of you truly performs the actions of the people of the Hellfire [as onlookers think], until there is but an arms length between him and it, and that which has been written overtakes him and so he performs the deeds of the people of Paradise and thus enters it.” [Recorded by al-Bukhari and Muslim]

This undoubtedly authentic hadeeth has  other versions with different wordings that show that the intention behind this is that the one who was previously doing the deeds of the people of Paradise was showing off or committing worse sins in secret and not attempting to get closer to Allah, so Allah exposed him and his wickedness after he was already astray in secret. The bracketed text, my inclusion, is from those other narrations, but not the one that al-Nawawi chose for his collection. Another possibility is that the individual who was doing good was amazed by his own deeds, and fell victim to vanity, like he did not need Allah for his own salvation, and abandoned worship. As for the person sinning publicly, he was privately struggling to earn Allah’s pleasure behind the scenes and overcome his sinfulness, and Allah rewarded his sincerity and guided him to more good deeds and repentance so that he die upon clear faith.

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Among the innate concepts that all humans share is a propensity towards Islamic perspective on determinism, just as they have towards Islamic monotheism, if you can even separate the two. Believing in “the Divine Decree” or as it is called in Arabic al-QaDaa wal-Qadr, is one of the most fundamental Islamic doctrines, and the true essence of faith in Allah, separating theists from deists.^[1]Theists are those who believe in the existence of a sovereign deity who is active in the creation, monitoring and influencing, whether they embrace an Abrahamic worldview or something of their own … Continue reading If a person acknowledges that Allah is the Creator of all things, and that nothing happens without His Knowledge or beyond His Will, recorded with Him, then their faith in Qadr is acceptable. If that’s understood, feel free to close the book here and move on with your life or return home. If a person experiences doubts or insecurities regarding “fate” and “free will” they should return to those fundamentals and leave off anything else they read or heard. Full grasp and understanding of the concepts behind Qadr are considered impossible because it deals with Allah’s attributes and creation, neither of which have been totally revealed to us nor in our ability to completely grasp.

{مَّا أَشْهَدتُّهُمْ خَلْقَ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَلَا خَلْقَ أَنفُسِهِمْ } ﴿٥١﴾ سورة الكهف

“I made them not to witness the creation of the heavens and the earth and not even their own creation.” [18:51]

{يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِهِ عِلْمًا} ﴿١١٠﴾ سورة طه

“He knows what happens to them in this world, and what will happen to them in the Hereafter but they will never encompass anything of His Knowledge.” [20:110]

Other details…

Does Allah control our fate? Will we be consigned to an ultimate destination based solely on Allah’s choosing?

It would be a deficiency in Allah’s knowledge if He did not know the future, or the Hereafter which He has created for us, and already revealed many intimate details about it to His Messenger Muhammad ﷺ as prophecy. So Allah Knows our ultimate destination. As for our going there, and punishment and reward, that is not based on Allah’s Knowledge, but based on our faith and what we do with it, just as the Quran and Sunnah consistently repeat loud and clear. Allah knows who will believe and who will disbelieve.

{وَلِلَّـهِ مَا فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَمَا فِي الْأَرْضِ لِيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ أَسَاءُوا بِمَا عَمِلُوا وَيَجْزِيَ الَّذِينَ أَحْسَنُوا بِالْحُسْنَى} ﴿٣١﴾ سورة النجم

“And to Allah belongs what is in the heavens and what is in the earth, so that He may requite those who worked evil, and reward those who did well with better.” [The Quran 53:31]

Another consistent aspect of our faith in Allah’s dominion over the universe is recognizing its subtlety. In other words, Allah does not “run the show” like a puppet master while we are simply having our strings pulled, even though what takes place is within His greater Will. Rather, we see that nature and the cosmos move and work in order according to physical laws Allah designed as a framework for His creation. Do you see any puppet strings?

{اللَّـهُ الَّذِي رَفَعَ السَّمَاوَاتِ بِغَيْرِ عَمَدٍ تَرَوْنَهَا ۖ ثُمَّ اسْتَوَىٰ عَلَى الْعَرْشِ ۖ وَسَخَّرَ الشَّمْسَ وَالْقَمَرَ ۖ كُلٌّ يَجْرِي لِأَجَلٍ مُّسَمًّى ۚ يُدَبِّرُ الْأَمْرَ يُفَصِّلُ الْآيَاتِ لَعَلَّكُم بِلِقَاءِ رَبِّكُمْ تُوقِنُونَ} ﴿٢﴾ سورة الرعد

“Allah is the One Who raised the heavens without any pillars that you could see. Then He rose above the throne, and subjected the sun and the moon, each running until an appointed term. He runs the affairs [of the universe] and details the Signs so that you may believe with certainty in the meeting with your Lord.” [13:2]

We could not live otherwise. If we jump, we fall; if we eat and drink, we get full and later answer the call of nature; if we worship, we are solaced and energized in faith; if we sin, we feel sluggish and ashamed; and ultimately, if we do this or that, we will see their consequences beyond this life as well. So the events and judgments of the Hereafter are based on our own choices in this life, and Allah’s expansive mercy. It will not be that we live one life but are judged for another, nor that we are steered towards it without our own choosing, for each of us senses our own ability to choose.

Allah knows our fate, but Allah does not directly control it in the way a carpenter does his tools. Every human should recognize the difference between the flow of blood, actions of the liver and kidneys, shedding of skin and growing of hair, which we have no choice over, versus our ability to move, think and speak. Instead, Allah influences it, from outside, but leaves the choosing to us. When the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was asked about whether this means we should “retire” and simply see what Allah has in store for us, he negated that and recited:

{فَأَمَّا مَنْ أَعْطَىٰ وَاتَّقَىٰ ﴿٥﴾ وَصَدَّقَ بِالْحُسْنَىٰ ﴿٦﴾ فَسَنُيَسِّرُهُ لِلْيُسْرَىٰ ﴿٧﴾ وَأَمَّا مَن بَخِلَ وَاسْتَغْنَىٰ ﴿٨﴾ وَكَذَّبَ بِالْحُسْنَىٰ ﴿٩﴾ فَسَنُيَسِّرُهُ لِلْعُسْرَىٰ ﴿١٠﴾} سورة الليل

“As for him who gives in charity and keeps his duty to Allah and fears Him, and believes in the best (Islam), We will make smooth for him the path of goodness. But he who is a greedy miser and thinks himself self-sufficient, and denies the best, We will make smooth for him the path for evil.” [92:5-10]

The more we gravitate towards a certain pathway in life and strive for it, Allah will let us get drawn further in that direction, whether it be good or bad for us in the Hereafter. We choose the paths we want, but Allah facilitates that choosing for us. Still, He tests us all the while, making sure, do you really want to go down this path? So sometimes, believers give in to sin, and similarly, evildoers repent.

Understanding Allah’s power and ability over His creation, even in the most intimate details, is a source of great comfort and is ingrained in the hearts of all humans. When you pray, just as your focus is innately drawn upward towards Allah, you also have a feeling that Allah Knows, Hears and Sees you, and is fully capable of intervening. Were He not, there would be no point to prayer other than being a placebo. So when test confronts you, you know that Allah is right there; the more you invoke Him, the stronger your faith becomes and realization of His sovereignty. For those who forget that Allah Guides His creation, if some good comes to them, think they earned it or they attribute it to luck. If hardship befalls them, they become miserable, hateful towards their Creator or disbelieving in God, where was God when this and that happened, because they don’t realize it’s a test, and think life should be perfect and without tests (like Paradise) and feel they don’t deserve hardship, so God is unfair from their perspective.

This is all very important to understand, as it comes head-to-head with a widespread false notion about Allah and fate. Many lay Christians believe that God loves every member of His creation, even the oppressive and obstinate. They claim God is guiding all in the most righteous manner and does not allow unfairness within His dominion, as if the disbelief and wrongdoing of others was outside His influence. Some misguided Muslim sects (known as the Mu`tazilites) made similar claims. For that reason, when ill befalls them or those close to them (since they ignored the evil elsewhere around the world!) they start disbelieving in Allah and doubting His existence or influence in creation.

Atheists and deists deny Allah’s sovereignty over creation out of rebellion against what they feel should not take place in a perfect world—assuming that if Allah is perfect, His creation must be perfect. Allah’s creation is physically flawless, and His intention is of the Highest Wisdom: to manifest His attributes of Mercy, Justice and Retribution. He accomplishes that through the creation of thinking beings, putting them through this proving ground gauntlet called life, with Islam as a guide. Paradise, the abode without poverty, sickness, death, earthquakes, oppression or accountability, is a reward for those who passed the tests of this life. This life was never meant to be Paradise. So those who blame Allah for not making this life Paradise have completely misunderstood Allah and misunderstood the purpose of their existence. They then punish themselves by disbelieving, while Allah is not harmed in the least.

{إِن تَكْفُرُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّـهَ غَنِيٌّ عَنكُمْ ۖ وَلَا يَرْضَىٰ لِعِبَادِهِ الْكُفْرَ ۖ وَإِن تَشْكُرُوا يَرْضَهُ لَكُمْ ۗ وَلَا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَىٰ ۗ ثُمَّ إِلَىٰ رَبِّكُم مَّرْجِعُكُمْ فَيُنَبِّئُكُم بِمَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ ۚ إِنَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ} ﴿٧﴾ سورة الزمر

“If you disbelieve, then Allah has no need of you, and He is not pleased from His slaves’ ingratitude; but if you are grateful, He will be pleased for you. And no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another; then to your Lord is your return, and He shall inform you of all that you were doing. Truly, He knows what the hearts contain.” [39:7]

Lastly, whatever I’ve said in alignment with the Truth, then it is from Allah, and whatever I’ve said in err, it is from my sinful self and shaytaan. And Allah knows best.