Q30 :When something happens, we say that it has
happened by Allah’s will. But then we say that man is required to abide
by Islamic teachings and he will be either rewarded or punished for his
actions. I realize that certain things like health and illness, birth
and death, etc. are out of our control. But I have also heard it being
said that with regard to financial earnings, a man cannot exceed what
Allah has fixed for him. It is up to him to earn his money through
legitimate or illegitimate means. At the same time, when someone has a
large number of children, people will say Allah will provide for them.
Could you please netment on these points.
A30 : No believer will question the fact that it
is Allah who has created the universe and who has set all the rules of
nature in operation. On the basis of this netmon acceptability,
everyone agrees that weather conditions, birth and death as well as
effects of natural forces and conditions on man happen by Allah’s will.
We are not considering here the argument of non-believers who try to
explain these phenomena away, by saying that they are the product of
natural forces and natural laws. When you ask them who has devised
these natural laws and set them in operation, they have no convincing
answer. But to a believer who accepts that all these have been put into
existence by Allah’s will, no conflict arises between the divine will
and his own choice. What is very important to remember is that it has
been Allah’s will to create man with the ability to determine his own
actions. Moreover, human life is made in such a way that man is
influenced by his own actions. When you do something,its results must
affect you in one way or another. If they were to have no effect at all
on you, then you lose the motivation or the incentive to do anything at
all. The point you have mentioned with regard to a person’s earnings
is rather misleading. A government employee who can get away with
embezzlement of funds and remains in his job for several years will be
able to amass a wealth which he could not hope to have received
otherwise. We cannot say, therefore, that he would have ended up with
the same amount of money whether he resorted to embezzlement or chose
to be honest and not to take a single riyal in an illegitimate way. If
this is true, people will sit idle and wait for their provisions to
nete to them. Similarly, a person who drinks or smokes will have the
ill-effects of both substances. A smoker is likely to develop lung
cancer or heart disease or any one of the other diseases associated
with smoking. If he does not smoke, the likelihood of him suffering any
of these diseases is greatly reduced. The same applies to alcoholic
drinks and their effects on health. We cannot, then say that whatever
man does, he will end up suffering the same diseases. Nevertheless, you
have accepted that our health condition is part of Allah’s will. How
can we reconcile these two sets of facts? The answer is simple.
Everything operates according to Allah’s will. Nicotine, which is the
poisonous substance in tobacco, produces its effects by Allah’s will.
It is He who has given it its qualities. Therefore, when man inhales
this substance, he cannot escape its cumulative effects on his health.
This effect is, therefore, produced by Allah’s will. What this means is
that when man inhales nicotine he sets up Allah’s will to operate on
him in a certain manner. When he refrains from smoking, he sets it to
operate in a different manner. In both cases, he is subject to Allah’s
will, but the end result is widely different. The other point which we
have to clarify here is Allah’s advance knowledge of what we are going
to do in our lives. Allah knows before He creates any man or woman or
indeed any creature what this creature will do and what others will do
to it and what will happen to it at every moment of its life. He knows
who of us will be a chain smoker and who, like myself, cannot stand the
smell of tobacco. He similarly knows who will have lung cancer as a
result of smoking and who will be spared that agony. This knowledge
does not interfere with man’s choice. It is not the way that Allah has
created a particular person that influences which make him take up this
dangerous habit. In the final resort, it is his choice which determines
what happens to him. As you see, there is no conflict between Allah’s
will and man’s choice. Man’s choice is indeed part of Allah’s will, in
the sense that it is He who has given man this ability, told him of its
effect on him and allowed him to exercise this freedom of choice
throughout his life. This is what makes man accountable for his
choices. If his choice was not a free one, accountability would not
nete into it, in the same way as all animals are not accountable for
their actions. They do not have free choice. As for children and what
Allah provides for them, again this is a simple matter. Allah tells us
in the Qur’an that everything that walks on earth will have its
provision set for it by Allah. Nevertheless, if we were to stop working
and consume what the earth produces of vegetables, fruit and cereal,
etc. we will very soon go through all that is available on earth and
find out that we have nothing to sustain us for another day. At the
same time, when we work we are able to increase production manifold.
If you were to ask any scientist one hundred years ago whether the
earth will be able to support five billion people, his answer would
have been a decisive ‘no’. Nor would he have imagined that the
population would reach this figure in 1988. His answer was most
probably according to his knowledge of the potentials of the earth. He
could not have imagined the effects of electricity and other sources of
energy on man’s productivity. The earth could not have supported this
number of people if we were still using the same agricultural and
industrial techniques we were using one hundred years ago. In this
example, man’s work is a very important factor in the equation of
productivity and consumption. It is the means with which we are working
that make all the difference. Allah has certainly given us the
potential to earn our living and the living of our families. But He
will not just send us an extra sum of money every month, which will
nete to us through a special post simply because we have another child.
When you have a large family you have to work harder in order to
earn more to support your wife and children. When you do work harder,
Allah gives you the fruit of your work. Having said that, I must
clarify that I include within “working harder” what every one of us
tries to do when he is coping with a greater responsibility, namely, to
look for more opportunities to help one’s family. That such
opportunities do occur is part of Allah’s will. Whether we take them up
or not is our choice.
Our Dialogue ( Source : Arab News – Jeddah )