Fate and Divinity - Islamic perspective

Out and out, fate is for those too weak to determine their own destiny. I have many reasons to believe that we create our fate every day, and every moment we live. Thus and so, each man is the architect of his own fate.

Fate comes down on those who do nothing but curse their fate. In point of fact, it utterly leads the willing, and drags along the reluctant. Implicitly and explicitly, such are the people who live and die with their music still unplayed. They never dare to try.

Just the same, those who have the power to push back the tides of consequential forces, can actually change their fate. And those who can’t are the people who ought to change their attitude. This implies that there is no fate but our decisions that make or unmake it.

Fate is just a fancy way of saying luck. Once a fortune teller told Hitler that he had no lines in his hand to show bright prospects and hence a bad fate ahead. He took a knife, incised a line on his palm and said, ‘That’s upto me how I draw my fate.” By the way, Hitler was a leader who was a victim of fate owing to wrong decision.

And never forget that winners refuse to believe in fate and losers use it as an excuse. To change your fate, you must first change yourself, as it is you who created your fate.

Some believe that one's fate may be ascertained by divination. That’s true in Islam and Allah is referred to as the Divinity. Among Muslims, there is a sphere in which human beings are perfectly free to choose between moral options. Here people have a freedom to choose good or bad options. A person has complete control in this sphere over his intentions. Even here, although he has the perfect freedom to choose, he is not free to carry out these intentions.

Man is thus partly free and partly subject to deterministic forces. He will nevertheless be held accountable for acts that he intended to do out of his free will. He can make his own fate. He has been shown both the paths, of virtue and vice, of truth and falsehood. He has been given complete freedom of choice between the two. He needs to exercise this freedom responsibly.

The belief that everything which happened, and will happen is according to the knowledge, will and command of Allah is called Taqdeer. Belief in Taqdeer is obligatory. Strong belief in Taqdeer will indicate that Allah’s wish is in this occurrence and it cannot be opposed. And Taqdeer happens to be the synonym of destiny and has nothing to do with fate.

Allah states in Surah Aal-e-Imran: “(After you have consulted) and when you have firmly decided, then have trust on Allah (and proceed to do what you have decided to do). Verily, Allah loves those who place reliance (on Him).”

In a hadith compiled by Tirimizi, Jabbir (Radi Allah anhu) narrates that Muhammad (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) said: “You can never be a Mu’min as long as you do not believe in Taqdeer in its good and its bad to such an extent that whatever is to happen will not be warded off and whatever is not to happen will not occur.

Nonetheless, in keeping with social precepts, Man is free to choose his actions but must bear the natural consequences of them. The laws governing the physical as well as the human social universe are unchanging and constant. Whosoever follows the Divine Law, even if to a very small extent, and does noble deeds will see pleasant results. As in Chapter 99, Verse 7-8 of the Holy Qur’an, Allah says “And whosoever goes against the law, even if to a very small extent, would get appropriate punishment.”

Through and through, the end of the matter is an abstract expression: destiny and not fate is the verdict of divinity. Asif J. Mir Organizational Transformation