By Babatunde Jose

What is the belief in destiny in Islam? That Allah has decreed all things from eternity. He knows what will happen, when it will happen, how it will happen, and He has written it and willed it. This includes the pettiest of human affairs.

Qadar literally means “power”, (J. M. Cowan (ed.) (1976). The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. Wiesbaden, Germany) but translated variously as: fate, divine preordainment, predestination, divine decree, decree of Allah: Qadar is the concept of divine destiny in Islam. At the same time, human beings are responsible for their actions, and will be rewarded or punished accordingly on Judgement Day. There is therefore a contradiction and hence different schools of thought.

Predestination/Divine Destiny is one of Sunni Islam’s six articles of faith. Some early Islamic schools (Qadariyah and Mu’tazila) did not accept the doctrine of predestination; Mu’tazila argued that it was “unthinkable” that God “would punish man for what He himself had commanded” or preordained.

Qadariyah means will. This understanding says what happens to humans is a personal will. According to them, humans are fully responsible for their actions.

Qadariyah means will. This understanding says what happens to humans is a personal will. According to them, humans are fully responsible for their actions.

Predestination is not included in the Five Articles of Faith of Shi’i Islam. At least a few sources describe Shi’i Muslims as denying predestination, and at least one Shi’i scholar, Naser Makarem Shiraz, argues “belief in predestination is a denial of justice”.

Does a preordained power that we call destiny or fate control both the nature of the events that occur in our lives and the resulting planned or spontaneous actions we take? Contrary to popular belief…there are those who strongly believe that there is not!

In orthodox Islam, God’s control over what happens in his creation is absolute. “Allah has decreed all things from eternity”. He knows that they will happen, when they will happen, how they will happen, and “He has written that and willed it”. al-Qada’ wa’l-Qadar by Dr ‘Abd al-Rahmaan al-Mahmoud, p. 39.

“He knows what is in land and sea; not a leaf falls, but He knows it.” (Q.6:59).

But at the same time, human beings in their life on earth have the choice to do good or evil (Free will), are responsible for their actions, and will be rewarded or punished according to an eternal afterlife.

This poses the question, raised by the early Islamic rationalist Mu’tazila school of thought; if everything that has happened and will happen, including all acts of good and evil, has already been determined by God, doesn’t that mean that everything a human being does during their life is only following God’s decree? How can human beings be responsible for this, and even be punished with eternal torment in hell for it?

The question was/is not unique to Islam, and the debate over whether free will exists is not even limited to religion. According to Justin Parrott of the Islamic Yaqeen Institute, “it has been an important issue throughout history”, addressed by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle over 2000 years ago. Orientalist Alfred Guillaume points out the dilemma “has exercised the minds” of theologians of all religions “which claim to present” a god that is both almighty and moral.

According to Maria De Cillis, “the apparently unsolvable conflict between the concepts of free will and determinism (or divine predetermination)” has not only been “a matter of great interest” but also of “heated controversy”, extending beyond academia and the ulama and into politics “by virtue of the repercussions that this debate has in a social context”.

For example, when tyrannical and corrupt authorities encourage fatalism towards tyranny and corruption by pointing out that these maladies are “divinely willed and preordained”. De Cillis, Maria (22 April 2022). “ISLAM. Muslims and Free Will”.

According to Justin Parrott, “the idea … that everything has already been decreed by the Creator from eternity and the “myriad of philosophical conundrums that arise” from the issue has caused some Muslims to experience doubts of faith. “Are we forced to do what we do, or are our choices meaningful?”

De Cillis writes that the issue was so sensitive, that the Prophet (SAW) allegedly taught believers to abstain from considerations about destiny (qadar), calling it ‘a deep sea, a dark path and God’s secret’.

One of the most authoritative Sunni intellectuals, the theologian and Sufi master, Abū Hamid al-Ghazali (d.1111), reports in his masterpiece, The Revival of the Religious Sciences, the tradition according to which Muhammad (SAW) … proclaimed: “Refrain from speaking about qadar.”

As a result, the scholars emphasized that providence is a secret of Allah and that “going too deeply into it philosophically” will lead to “misguidance”. The creed of Al-Tahawi warns “that providence” is such a secret that even God’s most obedient and holy creatures were not let in on the mystery.

The principle of providence is the secret of Allah Almighty in His creation that has not been given to an angel near Him, nor to a prophet or messenger. Exaggeration (al-ta’ammuq) and debate regarding it leads to failure, progressive denial, and a degree of transgression. Take every precaution against that kind of debate, thinking, and insinuation, warned the sages..

But one may say then, “What’s the use of striving in this life if we will get what is already decreed by God?” What is the essence of striving when the end state is already pre-ordained? The catch here is that that end, or preordainment is never known to man but only God. If it were known that I would be rich and famous, why would I make any effort. To this end, it is only God that knows the end state.

The answer to the conjectures above is very simple. Man cannot strive against the destiny that was not revealed to him. Therefore, because destiny is never revealed, life is a struggle against unknown fate. We struggle, pray, and supplicate because we are never sure of what our ‘ori’ has chosen. This therefore brings into question the related concept of fatalism.

What is this thing called fatalism and what role does it play in our lives?

Fatalism is a belief that things happen, and we have no choice but to accept the outcome of events.

Fatalism is a doctrine that stresses the complete control of all events or actions to fate or destiny, and is commonly associated with resignation, acceptance, conformity, concession, and submission.

 Those who embrace fatalism believe that bad events cannot be avoided…and they are powerless to change the future. Thus they wallow in misery, poverty and impoverishment.

Fatalism is a false, misleading, dangerous, and manipulative premise. What will be is not necessarily what must be!

One does not have to be a prophet in any sense of the word however, to entertain a strong bias for action, self-reliance, and self-determination…and an intense dislike for fatalism, excuses, and subjugation. This exactly is the bane of our people when we resign our fate to the spiritual realm: God will deliver us from our clueless and thieving leaders. We congregate in churches and mosques to pray for deliverance when we should be on the barricade fighting for our freedom and emancipation.

“The Greek idea of fate is moira, which means “portion.” But there is more to life than just fate. There is also genetics, environment, economics, and so on. So, it’s not all written in the book before you get here, such that you don’t have to do anything. That’s fatalism.” — James Hillman

Fatalism is a tool of the weak, lazy, indolent and for those inflicted with a courage deficit … it’s their way of giving up, surrendering freedoms, and accepting the inevitable (without putting up a fight). Those who embrace fatalism believe that bad events cannot be avoided…and they are powerless to change the future. Yet, ‘when life gives you lemons, make lemonade’ – Dale Carnegie.

In retrospect, the various schools present a conundrum that could lead the enquirer to the warm embrace of atheism.

Perhaps it would suffice to hearken to the wise counselling of the Holy Prophet (SAW) that man should not dabble into concepts which are the exclusive preserve of Allah. Providence is a secret of Allah and “going too deeply into it philosophically” will lead to “misguidance.”

When people adhere to apocalyptic prophecies, they usually do so because they believe in predestiny.

But does predestiny really exist? For the sake of argument, let us assume that it does: at any given moment in the present, there is a future already created that is as solid and as real as any moment in the past or present. Perhaps time is not as linear as we have believed. If such a future already exists, does that mean that it is inevitable and must occur? No.

The point being made is that the future is shaped largely by intention backed by action: the stronger the intention and the better it is backed up by action, the more solid the future will tend to be.

Some people would argue that the true seer would foresee the future and predict our destiny. Prophecy has really only one value: as a tool to either change or ensure the future. The future is therefore malleable. A future reality, no matter how solid it is or how many prophets have agreed to its existence, can be changed.

It will be irreversible only if people continue to perform, or fail to perform, those actions which will cause that future to come about, and no one does anything effective enough to counter those actions or inactions.

This is exactly where we find ourselves today. Complacency and imperviousness to change which erroneously has been termed resilience; but truly, our ‘Mumu’ never end.  The day it ends we will chart a new destiny for ourselves and our children.

Let the oppressed, pauperized, and impoverished gather their acts and struggle to remove the shackles of socio-economic impoverishment they have been subjected to over the ages. It is time to set the captives free. Poverty, destitution is not our destiny, we should resolve to shape the future.

By Babatunde Jose

In concluding the series on Creation Revisited, we affirm that not only does the existence of matter, of motion, and of life, testify that there is God, but the magnitude and magnificence of creation announce the same grand truth: the work reveals the Workman.  (Quran 20:50) (Quran 13:3)

Three years ago, the world woke up to a momentous event with the landing of NASA’s Perseverance robot on Mars. Perseverance landed after a seven-month journey covering 300 million miles, traveling at unfathomable speeds of up to 12,000 miles per hour. Described as one of the most challenging technological feats human beings have ever attempted, it was made possible by the predictability of scientific facts and calculability of physical data and propulsion systems.

It was not a deed left to random or accidental happenstance. It reflected the facts made possible by the order in nature, speed of light, predictable distance, that engenders accurate mathematical calculations and geo-positioning. Man’s space odyssey could not have been possible if the facts of order in the universe kept changing at random. This order did not come about through chance, but a well-designed plan by a benevolent Creator. Order and not chaos or chance is what makes scientific advance possible. Order makes the world go round.

The author of the Epistle to the Hebrews indulged in no mere poetic rhapsody when he wrote, “Every house is builded by someone: but He who built all things is God.” Hebrews 3:4 Similar sentiments are expressed in Quran 13:2 See also (Quran 2:164).

Here on earth, we are confronted with phenomena, for which no explanation is adequate. There are incalculable hosts of creatures, varying in size from gnats to elephants, each requiring its regular food, the total amount of which for a single day defies human computation if not the imagination. From whence proceed such ample and unfailing supplies? Only one answer satisfactorily meets the case: from the living God! See (Psalm 104:14).

In July 2007 at a meeting with the clergy, Pope Benedict XVI noted that the conflict between “creationism” and evolution (as a finding of science) is “absurd”. He recognized the thesis and antithesis of the whole debate but added a clincher when he said: But on the other, the doctrine of evolution does not answer every query, especially the great philosophical question: where does everything come from? And how did everything start which ultimately led to man? I believe this is of the utmost importance. 

Truly evolution has many questions unanswered and where new facts emerge to upturn existing paradigms, efforts are made to cover up, or discredit. Who built the pyramids of Egypt, South America, and Asia? Who built the ‘megaliths? Did supposedly stone-age civilization have the technologies to achieve such feats? At what time did man emerge in the natural order? Dates keep changing with unearthing of new discoveries that make nonsense of old dates. Sometimes evolutionists engage in deceits and hoax such as that of ‘Lucy’ the Ape-man touted as our progenitor.

Professor Reiner Protsch von Zieten was famous for finding missing links suggesting interbreeding of Neanderthals with humans-until he was exposed in 2005.

Fifteen to twenty years ago, palaeontologists were certain that Homo Erectus – the supposedly immediate human predecessor of Homo sapiens – first appeared in Africa around 1.5 million years ago. So, it was said, Europe itself remained unoccupied until about 500,000 years ago, while Homo sapiens sapiens was deemed to have first appeared there only about 35,000 years ago. A mere fifteen years later, the thinking is almost unrecognizably different, for Homo sapiens sapiens is now believed to have appeared at least 120,000 years ago, while southern England and Spain are known to have been occupied by human beings 1.5 to 1.8 million years ago…In addition to this, it is now admitted that the human brain has remained roughly the same size for at least 1.7 million years – John Gordon (Egypt: Child of Atlantis). 

On a lighter note, it is very amazing to note that despite the saltiness of the seas, we still need to add salt to fish when cooking them. Allah be praised.

The clouds hold millions of tons of water – suspended in the Skies without any support. It is not by chance but by an immutable law which we cannot explain.

The baby antelope or baby giraffe starts walking immediately it is born; learns to run with the herd lest it becomes ‘Suya’ for predators. We can go on and on ad infinitum.

When God created nature and its laws, He gave man the latitude to develop on His Creation. That is why we have been able to make all the scientific discoveries and advances. Even cloning and hybridization of plants and animals were so ordained.

The air performs many functions for the good of mankind. While it covers us without any conscious weight, the air reflects, and thereby increases the life-giving heat of the sun. The air co-operates with our lungs, thereby ventilating the blood and refining the fluids of the body, stimulating secretions, and regulating our natural warmth. We could live for months without the light of the sun or the glimmering of a star, but if deprived of air for a very few minutes we quickly faint and die. 

The atmosphere with such varied and beneficent adaptations, diffuses vitality and health, retains, and modifies solar heat, transmits odours, and conveys sound. Not by chance!

The air bladder which enables the fish in the water to increase or decrease their specific gravity could not have been a product of evolution, fishes were created with air bladders ab initio.

 It is no accident of creation that fishes do not have ears. If God wanted them to hear, he would have given them; but they need them not.

One circumstance relating to the natives of the deep is very peculiar, they are obliged to plunder and devour one another for necessary subsistence. To compensate for this depletion, God made fishes very prodigious in their breeding. They spawn not by scores or hundreds, but by thousands and tens of thousands. Praise God!

In the Holy Qur’an, Allah calls our attention to his creations and appeals to us to study them closely in order that we may know that He is the Most Powerful, Most High, so that we can revere and worship Him. (Quran 7:174). (Quran 40:81)

Allah did not stop at these wonderful creatures, but He gave mankind the intellect to explore them to get benefits from them. (Quran 45:12-3) 

African Disasters: Flood and Earthquake

Mediterranean Storm Daniel passed through eastern Libya last weekend of Sept. 9, bringing heavy rainfall and flooding that resulted in large-scale destruction. Daniel dropped so much rain on Libya’s northeast that two dams collapsed, sending water into already inundated areas. Derna is bisected by Wadi Derna, a seasonal river that runs south from the highlands and into the ocean through the city. During heavy rain caused by storm Daniel, two major dams collapsed upstream the Wadi Derna, causing a torrent of water to burst into the densely populated city centre. Half of the city was washed into the Mediterranean Sea. Up to 20,000 people are now feared dead. And thousands rebered destitute.

Earthquake in Marrakech:  Over 3,000 killed in rare, powerful earthquake. The quake, Morocco’s strongest in more than a century, hit the country’s High Atlas Mountain range near Marrakech. The death toll has continued to climb in the wake of the rare and powerful 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Morocco last Friday night.

By Babatunde Jose

A growing number of educators and scientists around the world believe the account of creation in the Bible and the Quran and are pointing us back to the truth of these words: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.’ Genesis 1:1 and Quran 7, Al-Araf:54

The question ‘evolution or creation?’ becomes clearer when you rephrase it as ‘accident or design?’ Sir Fred Hoyle, professor of astronomy at Cambridge University, said: ‘The chance that higher life forms might have emerged in this way [through evolution] is comparable to the chance that a tornado sweeping through a junkyard might assemble a Boeing 747 from the materials therein.’

He continues: ‘The likelihood of the formation of life from inanimate matter is one out of 1040,000…It is big enough to bury Darwin and the whole theory of evolution. There was no primeval soup, neither on this planet nor on any other, and if the beginnings of life were not random, they must therefore have been the product of purposeful intelligence.’

Even evolutionist Stephen Hawking, one of the most respected scientists since Albert Einstein, acknowledged: ‘The universe and the laws of physics seem to have been specifically designed for us. If any one of about 40 physical qualities had more than slightly different values, life as we know it could not exist: either atoms would not be stable, or they wouldn’t combine into molecules, or the stars wouldn’t form the heavier elements, or the universe would collapse before life could develop.’

All divine religions have taught that God created the universe by commanding “Be!” and that its flawless functioning is proof of His great power of creation. Many verses in the Qur’an also reveal this truth. For example, God reveals how He miraculously created the universe from nothing: “The Originator of the heavens and Earth. When He decides on something, He just says to it, ‘Be!’ and it is” (Surat al-Baqara, Q2:117). See also (Surat al-An’am, Q6:73)

God can use particular stages in His creation if He so wills. For example, He produces a plant from a seed or a human being from the coming together of a sperm and an egg cell. Yet these stages have nothing to do with evolution and have no room for chance or coincidence. Every stage in the emergence of a plant, or the turning of a single cell into a human being “in the best of forms,” happens thanks to the perfect systems created by God’s infinite might.

God willed and created the Earth and the Heavens, all that lies between, and all living and non-living things. This is very easy for Him, as indicated in the Qur’an: See (Surat al-An’am, Q 6:73), (Surat an-Nahl, Q16:40), (Surah Ghafir, Q40:68)

Yet some people do not fully comprehend His might and thus judge Him based upon their own limited powers. God says in the Qur’an: They do not measure God with His true measure when they say: “God would not send down anything to a mere human being.”… (Surat al-An’am, Q6:91). See also (Surat al-Hajj, Q22:74) (Surat az-Zumar, Q39:67)

Contrary to what those who believe in evolutionary creation suggest, God did not first create apes and then cause them to evolve into humans through flawed transitional forms with missing organs. Rather, as the Qur’an reveals, God created man in the most perfect manner: We created man in the finest mold. (Surat at-Tin, Q95:4).

Of course, man also has several incapacities and weaknesses, all of which remind him of his poverty before our Lord. Deformities and disabilities are the results of a purposeful creation, for they serve as reminders for those who see them and as a test for those who carry them. They are not imperfections caused by evolutionary process as falsely claimed by the evolutionists.

The Quran instructs Muslims to “contemplate the wonders of creation” (Quran 3:191). The entire universe, which was created by Allah, follows, and obeys His laws. Muslims are encouraged to seek knowledge, explore the universe, and find the “Signs of Allah” in His creation. Allah says:

“Behold! In the creation of the heavens and the earth; in the alternation of the night and the day; in the sailing of ships through the ocean, for the profit of mankind; in the rain which Allah sends down from the skies, and the life which He gives therewith to an earth that is dead; in the beasts of all kinds that He scatters through the earth; in the change of the winds, and the clouds which they trail like their slaves between the sky and the earth; here indeed are Signs for a people that are wise” (Quran 2:164).

For a book revealed in the 7th century C.E., the Quran contains many scientifically correct statements. Among them:

Quran on Creation:

“Do not the unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together, then We split them apart? And We made from water every living thing…” (Quran 21:30).

“And Allah has created every animal from water…” (Quran 24:45)

 “It is He Who created the night and the day, and the sun and the moon. All (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course” (Quran 21:33).

 “It is not permitted for the sun to catch up to the moon, nor can the night outstrip the day. Each just swims along in its own orbit” (Quran 36:40). See also (39:5, (55:5).

“You see the mountains and think they are firmly fixed. But they pass away just as the clouds pass away. Such is the artistry of Allah, Who disposes of all things in perfect order” (Quran 27:88).

“Man, We did create from a quintessence of clay. Then we placed him as a drop of sperm in a place of rest, firmly fixed. Then We made the sperm into a clot of congealed blood. Then out of that clot We made a fetus lump. Then We made out of that lump bones and ­­clothed the bones with flesh. Then We developed out of it another creature. So blessed be Allah, the Best to create!” (Quran 23:12-14), see also (Quran 32:9), (53:45-46), (75:37-39).

Ever wonder why we’ve failed to find life on any other planet, yet ours is designed to sustain us and meet our most basic everyday needs? It makes you wonder, doesn’t it? Do you think it’s just a coincidence? Not according to the Bible. In it God says, ‘I…made the earth and created mankind upon it.’ Isaiah 45:12 (KJV)

Did you know that if the earth was 10 per cent larger or 10 per cent smaller, life as we know it wouldn’t be possible? Or that we’re just the right distance from the sun so we receive the right amount of heat and light? If we were any farther away we’d freeze, and if we were closer we wouldn’t be able to survive.

Consider for a moment the amazing tilt of the axis of the earth. None of the other planets are tilted like ours at 23 degrees. This angle allows the sun’s rays to touch every part of the earth’s surface over the course of a year, as the earth circles the sun. If there was no tilt to the axis, the poles would accumulate enormous masses of ice, and the center of the earth would become so hot we couldn’t stand it.

Upon the surface of this earth are incalculable hosts of creatures, varying in size from gnats to elephants, each requiring its regular food, the total amount of which for a single day defies human computation if not the imagination. Those creatures are not set down in a dwelling-place where the table is bare, but where there is abundance for them all; nor are they furnished merely with a few necessities, but, instead, with a great variety of luxuries and dainties. For instance, the lion has a choice of delicious meal ranging from antelopes, buffaloes, giraffes and many more. From whence proceed such ample and unfailing supplies.

The continuous fertility of the earth after million of years of incessant productiveness can only be satisfactorily explained by attributing the same unto the riches and bounty of its Maker. That one generation of creatures is succeeded by another, in endless procession, on its surface, to find such an illimitable store of food available for them, is nothing but a stupendous miracle, the marvel of which is lost upon us either through our thoughtlessness or because of its unfailing and regular repetition.

The constant supplies which God causes the earth to yield for such myriads of beings is just as remarkable as the original production of the place in which they were to live, for the annual re-fertilization of the earth is actually a continuous creation.

To quote Psalm 104: as the reverent beholder contemplates the revived countenance of Nature in the springtime, he cannot but turn his eyes unto the living God and exclaim, “Thou renewest the face of the earth” (Psalm 104:30).

And what could man do, what could all the scientists in the world do, if winter should be prolonged month after month, and year after year? Nothing, but slowly yet surely die of starvation.

But the Creator has declared, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22).

 The retina in your eye contains 137 million light-sensitive cells, while the focusing muscles in your eye move approximately 100,000 times a day.

Well, guess what? Charles Darwin wrote in On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection, “To suppose that the eye with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I confess, absurd in the highest degree…The difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection , though insuperable by our imagination, should not be considered subversive of the theory.” ― Charles Darwin. The truth is this: God made you, and He has a plan for your life.

Among other unique characteristics, we have an innate ability to appreciate God’s creation. What animal gazes with awe at…the magnificence of Oke Idanre? What animal obtains joy from the sounds of music or takes the time to form itself into an orchestra to create and harmonize music?