Volume - V / CHAPTER - 1 / LESSON NO: 1
DIVINE DESTINY
Q 1: What is meant by "Taqdeer"?
A. What good or bad thing happens in the world or what virtuous or evil works His Allah's creation do that all is within His knowledge from eternity and occurs with His will. He has predestined every goodness and badness with His eternal and ancient knowledge i.e. what had to happen or what His creation had to do, Allah knew all that with His Own eternal knowledge and wrote that. So what is in His knowledge and written with Him is called "Taqdeer" (predestination).
Q 2: Is man constrained to do in accordance with Taqdeer?
A. Allah Almighty created humanbeings and provided them with the ears, eyes, hands, legs, tongue etc. and inculcated in them as to how use those. And all the more He endowed them with the best of things i.e. common sense, wisdom which made humanbeing superior to all animals.
Apart from these, Allah Almighty sent His Prophets and Holy Books to make mankind understand those points and things which they could not have comprehended by themselves and thus He made each and every thing clear leaving no room for any excuse at their part.
Similarly, He also graced them with a sort of power, will and option thereby to make humankind "Saahib-e-Iradah" and "Saahib-e-Ikhteyaar" (possessor of a particular free will and one having option) and thus man is not mere an incapable and powerless being. What is the difference between a man and stone. Stone is a lifeless object and bereft of "Iraadah" and "Ikhteyaar". As against this, Allah Almighty has blessed man with these qualities. So how paradoxical it is that the quality which has distinguished humanbeing from a stone is considered to be a cause for his being a lifeless and inanimate object like other inorganic matters.
Q 3: Why will a man be called to account for his actions when he is "Mukhtiar" (Saahib-e-Ikhteyaar)?
A. "Iraadah" and "Ikhteyaar" found in humanbeing are, indeed, creation of Allah Almighty. Thus, these qualities are not ours own but have been delegated to us thereby saving us from going unbridled. It is really unbecoming of a servant of Allah to claim himself to be "independent,self-willed". These partial free will and option granted to man coupled with common sense are the pivot of the commands of Shari'ah in this world and on this basis humanbeings will be called to account for their doings and will be rewarded or chastised as the case may be, in the next world. In short, Allah Almighty has not created man like stone and other lifeless objects but instead He has granted him a partial free will and endowed with brain faculty to differentiate between the good and bad and gain and loss and also provided all necessary paraphernalia which he needs for actions. Hence, he will have to give an account of his doings. It is misguidance to consider oneself either totally incapable or all independent.
Q 4: Is it against "Taqdeer" to make effort for anything?
A. The world is "Aalam-e-Asbaab" (the world of cause and effect/ the world of inter-dependerice). Allah Almighty has created one being/thing for the other
and vice versa. It is a divine practice that if there is a cause then it ought to have some effect i.e. there must be a doer or user if there is a thing. Therefore, making efforts or adoption of means to get the requisite thing is not against "Taqdeer" but is in consonance with it. Similarly, to wholly depend on "struggle" forgetting"Taqdeer" reflects the nature of infidels and to consider "struggle" a mere useless thing is also veritable misguidance or sheer lunacy.
The Prophets of Allah had firm belief in Divine destiny but even then they struggled and taught their followers to do so. Prophet David used to make armours and Prophet Moses grazed goats of Prophet Sho'ib on payment for fourteen years which is expounded in the Holy Qur-aan.
Q 5: Can "Taqdeer" be changed or not?
A. What is written on "Lauh-e-Mahfooz" (protected tablet) which is called "Qadaa-e-Mubram Haqiqi" (the real unalterable fate) will never change. If any of the chosen servants of Allah wants to pray to Him in this respect per chance, he is dissuaded from it. However, those injunctions which are written on the books of Angels or on the slates of "Lauh-e-Mahfooz" which are called "Qadaa-e-Mu'allaq" and "Qadaa-e-Mubram Ghair Haqiqi" (fate in suspension/alterable fate) are changed in one's favour either by the blessing of Allah, intercession of the Holy Prophet, by one's supplications or supplications of Allah's saints or by one's service to his parents or by showing kindness to blood
relations etc. and are changed disfavourably by commission of sins and tyranny, disobedience to parents and severing ties with relatives etc. For example, one had an age of sixty years in the Angels' book but he revolted against Divine his twenty years are slashed or did virtues twenty years are added to his sixty.
This change was brought about in "Taqdeer" but in fact it were forty years or eighty in the eternal knowledge of Allah and on "Lauh-e-Mahfooz" which had to happen.
Q 6: What about saying that such and such evil was predestined?
A. It is very bad to attribute any evil to "Taqdeer" or to the will of Allah. The injunction to this effect is that one should attribute his good deed to Allah Almighty and evil, if committed, to his ownself.
Q 7: What about arguing over predestined affairs?
A. The affairs of "Qada-o-Qadr" (divine decree,fate) are beyond the attainment of common man. Therefore, these should not be discussed everywhere freely to avert losing one's "Eimaan". Hadrat Siddique Akbar and Hadrat Farooque Azam (may Allah be blessed with them) have forbidden believers to discuss the predestined affairs. So we are nothing to talk about such delicate matters. The belief of Ahle Sunnat in this context is that a man is neither merely incapable being like a stone nor an independent entity but is in a state between
the two.
"Taqdeer" (destiny,predestination) is like the sea which has no bottom. It is a dark valley that has no inlet. It is the Divine secret which is beyond human comprehension.