Saturday, 29 October 2016

Destined to Live

“Sahl bin Saad (ra) narrated that prophet Muhammad (SAWS) said “some people ( in Allah's preordained destiny) even though are people of heaven will perform acts as though they are people of hell and some who are people of hell will perform acts of the people of heaven. It is the acts/deeds that are performed at the end or nearest to death which will be the decisive factor ."

Life is as it flows. One wonders what life is and how it moves through the time frame  and in this flow fate is something confusing and interpreted. Fate or destiny and its relation to morals and values is a study of its own and this is one of the theories of Islam. Preordained destiny or Qadr is part of Islamic belief but how it is manifested is a question that makes thinkers and philosophers ponder .
As this hadith states, people are destined for heaven or hell but their actions may be different. The weight age values more. When it is said that one’s destiny is already decided then why are actions important would be a question but why not think of it as part of destiny.In other words the actions performed are as the destiny  has it and the actions are part of the destiny. But since this hadith mentions about the concept of changing destiny the actions can help in changing ones destiny. So how or what destiny is and how is it related to man is intriguing.
To explain the above notion this hadith narrated by Ali (ra) can be read. 
Ali (ra) narrated that prophet Muhammad (SAWS) said that there is no one among you whose position in hell or heaven has not been decided or written already. The Sahabas (comrades) asked “oh messenger of Allah if so then why not live as per the destiny and withhold from doing any Amal(good deeds) . “ The Prophet replied “You perform the deeds and whatever is written in one’s destiny it will be made easier to them. The victorious will be allowed to perform good deeds and the losers will be allowed to perform bad deeds.” Then the prophet recited Surah 92 Verses 5 to 10:

As for him who gave out his wealth for Allah’s sake and abstained from disobeying and affirmed the truth of goodness we shall facilitate for him the way to bliss. As for him who was a miser and behaved with aversion and denied the truth of goodness we shall facilitate for him the way of hardship
As the hadith mentioned above portrays, life is something which is in between what is decided and what is to be decided. It is action and plan on the same coordinate. A relative plasma where the happening and the should be happening coincides giving one view called “lifespan”. It is really difficult to think of the present and the future together but this is indeed known as destiny, an amalgam of the present and the future.

One famous hadith known to most, talks about tying the camel to the pole and then praying for it to not go loose which depicts the present in future. What may happen might have been decided but we take precautions since we cannot think in two dimensions. Reality is running in two dimensions. The reason why one cannot decide on his future is because of destiny (qadr) but the zeal to work towards a dream or goal comes from action. When these go hand in hand it creates hi-s-tory.

 This is similar to the wave and particular nature of matter. At a time only one is prominent or existing to vision. Destiny and action are the same and it compliments each other or is transparent and dissolves in one another. Maybe it is one and the same but different manifestations.

“The cross-over of two frames result in dimensional collision and life is one such phenomenon.”

Saheeh Bukhari wa muslim(muthafaqqun alaih):samyuktha paribasha by Ibrahim Puthoor faisy 
  -kitab ul jihad,kitab ul maqasi
  -kitab ul iman,kitab ul qadr

The Holy Quran (Surah 92 Verse5-10)