What is Destiny? From our various experience of life we can safely conclude that destiny is God’s plan for our life. The way we live that life however, will determine the valence of that plan. Since as it were we are beings with free will, we are in a position to determine how we fulfill that manifest destiny.
Some of us have been destined great in life while some are destined to be not so great. A cocktail of conditions will interplay to make or mar the manifest destiny. Hence, different things can happen to a man’s destiny. The verdict is that destiny is not an immutable concept that is cast in iron and which binds some to riches and others to poverty. A man could be destined to be rich but might out of his free will decide to fritter his wealth away with wine, women and gambling and in the end he goes begging for bread. A man they say is therefore, the architect of his own fortune: faber fortunae tuae es.
God is in the heaven, He does as He pleases. And man is on earth and is free to do as he pleases. If a man decides not to worship God, it does not and will never diminish the sovereignty of God. So, there is the sovereignty of God; and there is the free-will of man – man can decide what he wants and what he does not want. The combination of these two can affect the destiny of a man.
If God say to the righteous, thou shall live, and then the righteous begin to sin, God says, he will die, because the wages of sin is death.
Ipso facto, if God says a wicked man will die and he repents and make restitution and seizes to sin, he will surely live. It is therefore obvious the sovereignty of God; the free-will of man, can affect destiny.
According to Pastor E.A. Adeboye, several things could happen to the destiny of man.
Destiny can be aborted; destiny can be destroyed; Destiny can be truncated or cut short. Destiny can also be redeemed; that is, it was lost and found.
Destiny can also be reversed and at the same time, it can be restored, as it happened to prophet Ayub (Job).
Destiny can also be helped. And this is where prayer and supplications come in. In this month of Ramadan, a great opportunity offers itself for the faithful to seek the benevolence of God by acts of repentance and a resolve to keep the commandments of Allah.
There is no doubt Allah can change the death sentence of man as He did that of Hezekiah: Isaiah 38:1-5 “In those days Hezekiah became mortally ill. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz came to him and said, “This is what the LORD says: Put your house in order, for you are about to die; you will not recover.”
“Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the LORD, saying, “Please, O LORD, remember how I have walked before You faithfully and with wholehearted devotion; I have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, “Go and tell Hezekiah that: I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears; behold, I will add fifteen years to your life.…
There is no doubt, God is merciful and faithful.
The Arabs refer to Destiny as Kadar, which we Yorubas refer to as Kadara. It means divine decree and predestination. But in the light of the above the following may be derived: Our supplications to change destiny are of much avail. Good deeds are a source of an increase in one’s sustenance, and can avert calamities. Sins result in a decrease in one’s sustenance, and invite calamities.
The Quran says: Nor would thy Lord be the One to destroy communities for a single wrong-doing, if its members were likely to mend. (Quran 11:119)
May Allah accept our Fast, prayers, acts of charity and supplications and admit our departed to the ‘garden of bliss’; grant us good in this world and also in the Hereafter.
For sure however, one destiny that we can never escape is death. It is as sure as daylight! All living things must taste of death (Quran 3:185), seeing that death is a necessary end and must come when it will. So let it be with Iya Gani, my cousin who died last Wednesday and was buried same day at our family grave at Atan Cemetery.
For sure, God never created anyone without a purpose. She served her purpose in life and fulfilled her role, howbeit the best way she could. Definitely, God knew us while we were in the womb and had already set us apart for Himself. Jeremiah 1:4-5.
Our Lord! Lay not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Blot out our sins, and grant us forgiveness. Have mercy on us. Thou art our Protector; Help us against those who stand against faith (Quran 2:286) Barka Juma’at and Ramadan Kareem
