Question:
1619
786
Asalamu Alaykom Mawlana!
My question is regarding Destiny. I heard in one of Harun Yahya’s speeches that our Destiny is written before even Adam (Alayhe Salam) was created, everything we do is by the Will of Allah. He also said that there are two wills, Divine Will and Free Will. However we’re free to choose what to do but whatever we do is by Allah’s Will. He is making us to do it, even this question which I’m asking is by Allah’s Will.
So the question is that for example if in someone’s destiny is written that he’d be killed by John on 24th at 2.00pm then when he’s killed why is John named killer or he has to be punished, didn’t Allah made him to do so?
May Allah forgive me for such a question but Better to know before it destruct my Iman further. JazakAllah Kahir
Answer:
wa `alaykum salam,
Don’t go into this discussion. It is not going to benefit you. There were hundreds of years of discussion of this issue in the first 3 centuries Hijri, that went through Mu`tazila and many other schools of thought, and none came to a true understanding. That is Allah’s Divine Knowledge and what He gives to awliyaullah they can speak about.
We go according to most scholars of Ma`tarudi and Ash`ari, Shafi`i and Hanafi, which is that Allah creates the action; when you decide to do it, Allah creates the action. So there are two kinds of will, general will and limited will. General will is Allah’s Will, such as when you are born, when you die, whether you go to heaven or hell. That is unknown; it is in Allah’s irada, Divine Will. There is then partial will that Allah gave us, that when we decide to do something, Allah creates the action and you do it. We cannot go deep in that, as it is for high level scholars, and very technical and not for the level of day-to-day life understanding. Some people might not understand and say that since everything is from Allah’s Will, “we go and do all kinds of sins and say that it is Allah’s Will”.
A small example in that is like someone in an airplane. There is take-off and landing. Take-off and landing is not in your hands. It is in Allah’s Hands. Take-off from dunya and landing in dunya is in His Hands. But within the plane there is unrestricted movement. That is where you have free will to do as you please, but you have no free will in where the captain is taking the plane. If you are clever you will understand.
Shaykh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani
