DESTINY The first principle which Islam lays down in regard to Taqdir is that man is neither completely the master of his fate nor is he bound to the blind law of predestination. So far as the sovereignty of Allahs Will is concerned, it is all-pervading and nothing falls outside its orbit. Not even a leaf, therefore, stirs without His Will. It is His Will that prevails everywhere. To God belongs the sovereignty of Heavens and the Earth. He created what He pleaseth, giving to whom He pleaseth females and to whom He pleaseth males or conjoining them males and females, and He maketh whom He pleaseth barren, verify He hath knowledge and power (xlii. 48). Men are, therefore, completely subordinate to the overruling power of God, they cannot do anything unless God wills so. Whom God guideth he is the rightly-guided. Whom he sendeth stray, thou wilt not find a patron to set him right (xviii. 16). His mighty grasp is, therefore, over everything. The Almighty Lord,Who has created everything and has determined its nature and course, has in His infinite wisdom and mercy conferred upon man a limited autonomy according to which a man is free to do or not to do a certain thing. It is because of this autonomy enjoyed by man that he is hold accountable for his deeds. The concept of human responsibility and that of his answerability for his deeds and misdeeds becomes meaningless if he is supposed to be deprived of this autonomy. There are, a large number of verses in the Holy Quran which make a pointed reference to the autonomy conferred upon man
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 10:16:21 +0000