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WHY
IS DESTINY INCLUDED IN THE ESSENTIALS OF
BELIEF?
Destiny
and man’s free will, which marks the
farthest point of perfection of one’s
belief and submission, is something
related to the inner experience and
spiritual state of a believer, so it is
not something indicated by science or
theory. Man has free will, and is
enjoined to follow the religious
obligations. He cannot by any means
ascribe his sins to God. Divine Destiny
exists so that the believer does not
grow proud of his good acts by ascribing
them to himself. Man has free will so
that the rebellious carnal self does not
rid itself of the consequences of its
sins by ascribing them to Destiny, and
the pious person conceitedly ascribe his
good acts to himself alone.
While
it may be admissible for people to
relate some misfortunes to Divine
Destiny, so as not to be driven to
despair in the face of calamities, no
one can be absolved from his sins and
exempt from his obligations by
attributing everything to Destiny. So,
belief in Destiny has been included
among the principles of faith to
preserve man from self-conceit, and man’s
free will is recognized as the ground of
his sins.
Man
is completely responsible for his sins,
because it is he himself who wills to
commit them, and then does so. Sins are
the cause of much disorder and
destruction, so they may merit a
terrible punishment-to cite an example,
a house can easily be burnt to the
ground just by the striking of a match.
On the other hand, man has no right to
boast about his good acts since, in
reality, he has little share in them. It
is the Divine Compassion which demands
good acts and the Power of the Lord
which creates them. God guides man to
good acts and makes him succeed in
willing and doing them, so the cause of
a man’s good acts is the Divine Will.
A man can possess and own them by means
of faith and by praying to God to be
able to deserve them, consciously
believing in the necessity of performing
them and being pleased with what God has
ordained for him. It is man himself, on
the other hand, who causes sins either
through capacity and disposition or
through choice and preference, just as
the pure bright sunlight can cause some
substances which are subject to
decomposition to go bad and putrefy.
Man
wills and commits sins, but it is God
Who creates all his acts whether they
are good or bad. God creates a sinful
act as a requirement of a law He
established for the life of man and the
universe for many good purposes.
Although man derives much benefit from
rain, a person who has suffered some
harm because of it cannot say that rain
does not contain God’s grace for man.
It is on account of this subtle reality
that willing and committing evil deeds
is evil but creating them is not.
Although there may be an evil in
creating evil deeds on the part of man,
creation is absolutely good by its very
nature and contains many instances of
good for the general operation and life
of the universe as well as for the one
who wills and commits that evil.
Ugliness in a man’s acts lies in his
will and potential, not in God’s
creating it.
As
Divine Destiny is absolutely free from
evil and ugliness in relation to
results, it is also exempt from
injustice on account of the causes.
Divine Destiny always takes into
consideration the primary cause, not the
apparent secondary cause, and always
does justice. Men, on the other hand,
judge according to the apparent causes
and draw the wrong conclusions. To cite
an example, a court may condemn a person
to imprisonment on a charge of theft,
and do injustice because he has not
committed any such crime-however, Divine
Destiny actually passes this judgment on
account of the murder which that person
committed but which remained secret.
Thus, while the court has done injustice
by condemning him on a charge of which
he is innocent, Divine Destiny has done
justice by punishing him for a crime
which remained unknown. It can be
concluded from this example that God is
absolutely just in all His acts, whilst
man is liable to do injustice. Divine
Destiny and Creation is absolutely free
from evil and ugliness at the beginning
and at the end of events, and on account
of cause and results.
Question
If
man has only a nominal share in his
acts because his free will does not
possess creative ability, why do we
read in the holy Quran that the
Creator of the Heavens and the Earth
takes man’s rebellion so seriously?
Answer
Unbelief,
rebellion and sinfulness mean
destruction, and complete destruction
can result from an act of disobedience
of a most nominal weight. Just as a
vessel may sink due to the helmsman’s
negligence, whilst the efforts of the
whole crew can achieve nothing to save
it. A man’s free will can cause great
depredations as a result of unbelief and
sinfulness, no matter how insignificant
a share it actually has in the
performance of acts. Unbelief is so
great a sin by its nature that it
reduces the whole universe to something
of no value, and contradicts the
witnessing to the Oneness of God by the
whole of creation, and denies the
manifestations of the Divine Names. It
is, therefore, entirely proper that God
should take unbelief so seriously and
threaten unbelievers so severely in the
name of the whole of creation and the
Divine Names, and it is absolutely just
to condemn them to the eternal torment
of Hell. Since rebellious men cause vast
corruption through unbelief and
sinfulness, the believers are in great
need of God’s succor against them. A
mischievous boy can set a whole house on
fire although it is guarded by ten
strong men, and those guards may need to
apply to the parents of that boy to
prevent him from committing such a
crime. So too do believers need the help
of God against rebellious and sinful
men.
In
short: It is permissible for the
believer to speak of Divine Destiny and
man’s free will, when his faith is
perfect and when he is mature enough to
perceive that all creation including
himself is at God’s disposal. He
assumes his responsibilities because he
has free will and glorifies God by
proclaiming Him to be free of any
involvement with his own sins. He never
forgets that he is a servant of God, and
accordingly tries to follow all the
Divine Commandments. On the other hand,
he remains thankful to God by ascribing
to Divine Destiny any good acts he has
been able to achieve, and never boasts
of them. Also he finds the strength to
bear all his misfortunes by discerning
in them the role of Destiny.
However,
it is not proper for anyone who neglects
the Divine Commandments to argue about
Divine Destiny and man’s free will,
since his defective thinking will lead
him to ascribe the whole of creation to
causes and ignore God completely. He
appropriates all his skills and good
deeds, regarding them to have originated
directly with himself, and attributes
his defects and failures to Destiny.
This view means the reduction of Divine
Destiny and free will to a senseless
trick played upon man by his own
commanding self (nafs ammara) to mislead
him to the point where he disregards and
denies his religious duties.
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