predestination

[Beautiful_Blue_Skies]

Predestination

 

And ordain for us in, this world that which is good, and in the Hereafter (that which is good), Lo! We have turned unto Thee. He said: I smite with My punishment whom I will, and My mercy embraceth all things, therefore I shall ordain It for those who ward off (evil) and pay the poor due, and those who believe Our revelations. (7:156)

Belief in the Lord's Divine Decree is one of the pillars of faith. Yet, there are many who struggle to understand a concept that can be seen as quite esoteric. Philosophers throughout the ages have wrestled with the issue of free will, some relegating the Lord to the status of mere bystander, others stripping mankind of all responsibility for its actions. In between these two extremes lies the truth. The Lord created mankind and sustains it, yet each individual has the free will to determine whether he will accede to the Lord's leadership or be one of the rebellious.

 

Key to understanding the Divine Decree, is knowledge of the fact that time is a creation of the Lord. As surely as He created the heavens and the earth, He created time. Because time is a creation of the Lord, He is not subject to its limitations. Therefore the terms beginning and end have no relevance to His Majesty. When we acknowledge that the Lord is free of time, we can now recognize that the end of mankind is as clear and immediate to Him as the beginning. To say that the Lord does not know what will happen to every person on the earth, or even every mote in the cosmos, is to place unacceptable limitations on He Whose knowledge encompasses all things. Therefore, 'before' mankind was even created, the Lord recorded the doings of each individual, his birth and his death, whether he will be rich or poor, and whether he will be of those in Paradise or in the Hellfire. Some consider this record to be proof that mankind has no free will, since everything about us was written before we were created. To try to look at it from a human perspective, let us imagine that we have recorded our favorite movie. We have watched it before, so we know the beginning and the end. We know that the hero will triumph, marry the beautiful princess, and live a long and happy life. At the midpoint of the movie, the plot is not suddenly going to change. This is simplistic but it underscores the fact that The Lord knows what we are going to do at any instant. He has an overview of creation, we do not. It is the inability to look at things from the Lord's point-of-view that frustrates and confuses many who strive to understand their place in the world. Man is subject to time. Try as we might, we cannot look into the future to see our fate. However, the Lord has created in us the natural urge to strive and better ourselves. We do not sit fatalistically waiting for His will to become manifest in us. We pray and we fast and we give charity and we hasten to do good deeds in order to secure our place in Paradise. It is better for man that he should not know his place, so he can strive and discipline himself. And truly, The Lord will make the path of righteousness easy for those who believe in Him, as he promises in His Holy Book: "So he who gives (in charity) and fears (The Lord) and in all sincerity testifies to the bests. We will indeed make smooth for him the path to bliss. But, he who is a greedy miser and thinks himself self-sufficient, and gives lie to the best, We will indeed make smooth for him the Path to Misery." (92:5-10)

 

The believer accepts that the Lord's Divine Decree is real, that what has happened to him could not have passed him by, and what passed him by could not have happened. This knowledge imparts a sense of serenity to the believer that is evident in the way he lives his daily life, as he surrenders to the will of the Lord and places his trust in Him. He knows that the Lord is just and will not burden any soul with more than it can bear, and that with the Lord lies knowledge of what is in every heart, today, tomorrow, and until the end of time.