Taqdeer is the term for destiny. God knows the future and He knew it even before he created the Children of Adam. He knows who would choose to be bad and who would choose to be good, who would be wise and who would be stupid, who would look after themselves and who would send themselves into oblivion.
Although from our position within time we think we are making our own fate, ultimately God, who lives outside of time and beyond the physical reality, created each of us knowing our fate.
This does not mean Muslims should adopt fatalism like the misguided Jabariyya sect – this is a foolish and harmful approach. Each of us does good deeds or bad ones using the choices that He has given us and thus earns Paradise in the hereafter or earns Punishment, within time our choices are very real.
Yet they should neither go to the extreme of the Qadariyya sect (not to be confused with the Orthodox Islamic Sufi Order, the Qadiriyyah), who held that humans have absolute free will and can do as they please.
Imam Ali (raa) once practically demonstrated the fallacy of this approach by asking such a person to lift both of their legs from the ground if they had power to act as they pleased, of course they were dumbfounded.
He went on to explain that it is just this kind of limited free will which the Children of Adam possess, i.e. they make their choices within the scope that God has allowed them
Prophet Muhammad (may God bless him and give him peace) explained to his Companions something very important. Reminded us that God is All Powerful and All Knowing and if He had wished he could have created only good people who would earn Paradise, but He chose to create some people who would use the free will that he gave them as Children of Adam (or Jinn) to commit evil deeds and to harm others.
Thus it is that God created these evil ones to be evil just as he created the good ones to be good, but He lives beyond the confines of time and people should understand that as He knows the future and he is All Powerful there can be no evil people in the world without His pre-knowledge of their evil acts and the fate of punishment that they would learn. He created these evil people through His Divine Wisdom which is beyond our limited minds, but the sensible people trust in Him and know that He knows best.
Likewise God created the good people knowing from their creation that they would earn Paradise through the benevolent and good use of their free will.
Thus it can be very truly said of the world and human fate that from the Divine perspective that exists outside of and beyond time ‘the pens have been lifted and the ink is dry’ – i.e. our destinies are known and indeed that our pasts, presents and futures all exist simultaneously – when at the same time in our limited and subjective mortal experience of reality we can use our free will to commit sins, harm others and practice evil (thus earning the Hell fire) or we can use our free will to either choose to serve God and to live a good and ethical life (thus earning Paradise).
O you asker of food,
sit for you wilt eat;
and O you asked by death,
run not for you will not save your life.
Whether you strive
for a maintenance or not
God the most high and glorious
will send it to you;
And if you rush into the jaw
of a lion or tiger
it will not devour you
unless it is the day decreed
for your death
(Saadi)
In the Mathnavi Rumi (ra) reminds us of a tale from long long ago…
One morning during the age of the blessed Prophet Solomon (may Allah bless him and give him peace) a man came rushing into his presence looking terrified.
The man informed the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) that he had just seen the Angel of death who had come to him and given him an angry and terrifying look. Solomon (may Allah bless him and give him peace) felt sorry for the man and when the man asked him to help him by using his great influence over the jinn and natural forces to take him to the distant eastern lands of India where he may hide the Prophet (may Allah bless him and give him peace) agreed.
Through the powers that Allah had given to Prophet Solomon (may Allah bless him and give him peace) the man was quickly transported to the distant eastern lands of India as requested.
The following day Prophet Solomon (may Allah bless him and give him peace) came across the Angel of death and asked him as to why he had given the poor Muslim such an angry terrifying look as to cause him to flee from his home.
The Angel of death replied that it had not been a look of anger, but rather of confusion as he had expected to take the soul of that very man in the far distant land of India that same day but he had no idea how he could get there in time even if he had 100 wings.
Physicists have calculated that viewed from outside it the created Universe can be imagined as a static reality of space time in which past, present and future exist all at once. The cosmos viewed from outside (a place where only God could go) would in fact likely be seen as being static, with all its time-space occurrences and relations existing simultaneously.
God is existent beyond the boundaries of the universe, which is His creation. God knows the past and future, as well as the present because God is not bound by space-time. As we exist within space-time we only know the present and have memory of the past we are always bound to a moment in time.
An example of this is how God who is beyond space-time knows our fate and whether we will choose for good or for ill, whereas we humans and jinn are within time and thus use our limited free will to plot our own course in life. If God wanted to he could stop us doing things, yet in general he lets us follow our choices and although it can truly be said that in regards our fate the pens have been lifted and the ink has dried this is from a Divine perspective and from our (in time) human perspective we are still choosing and earning our fate for ill or good.
It is known that God opens up the path of goodness for those wise people who seek it and opens up the path of evil to those foolish people who seek that one, but God is a Just God and truly no one will be punished in the hellfire who has not fully earned it and truly God is a Most Merciful God and those people who are blessed with the rewards of Paradise will not just be with what they have earned, but rather they will be many many times over for what they had earned.
Work for good and rest in the hands of God as wise people have explained a wonderful thing to us that is greatly liberating. Know this – nothing will ever harm you that God has not ordained for it to harm you (as a test) and nothing will ever benefit you that God has not ordained to benefit you.
Therefore bear hardships with faith and trust in God knowing that they were never going to pass you by and let go of vain hopes of things that you had wanted but which had not occurred as they were never going to benefit you – so appreciate what you have and let grief over what you wished had happened fade away into nothingness.
Furthermore, wise people have explained to us that we may be liberated from any worry about death when we come to terms with the fact that our life span is already written and chosen by God, we can neither shorten it nor extend it. Once we have truly understood this we can be liberated from any fear of death (whilst following our duty to be cautious and sensible) and instead we can save our fear for God and hopefully become truly God fearing people, as this is the healthiest and most productive type of fear that there is.
Abdur Raheem
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