The sun and the moon are by an exact calculation (of the All-Merciful) (55:5).
He has made the night for repose, and the sun and the moon a means for reckoning (the divisions of time). (6:96)
He it is Who has made the sun a radiant, illuminating light, and the moon a light reflected, and has determined for it stations, that you might know (how to compute) the number of the years and to measure (time). (10:5)
The number of the months, in God’s sight, is twelve, as determined and decreed by God on the day when He created the heavens and the earth (and set them moving in the present conditions). (9:36)
They ask you (O Messenger) about the new moons (because of the month of Ramadan). Say: “They are appointed times (markers) for the people (to determine time periods) and for the Pilgrimage.” (2:189)

The concept of time is not mentioned directly in the Qur’an. But there are numerous verses reporting a time period in which many words are repeatedly used to allude to it. “Age” (karn – plural: kurun), “month” (shahr), and “year” (sana, am, hijaj, and havlayn) are mentioned 20, 21, and 30 times respectively [1]. Regarding the concept of time, al-Taftazani says in his book Aqaidu’n Nasafi, “Time is used to describe things that have a beginning. Things that have a beginning depend on certain conditions. God is beyond all measurements and limitations” [2].

Islamic scholars divide time into two, “earthly-physical” and “spiritual-metaphysical,” and they describe current time as “psychological time,” “expanding time,” or “existential time.” According to Bediuzzaman Said Nursi, time is a mysterious coordinate that is in charge of regulating the material world and events. He describes biologic time as activity, growth, development, and speed: “However unmoving, constant, and static a clock outwardly appears, it is in a state of continuous movement in essence and inwardly. Likewise the world, which is a huge clock of the Divine Power, rolls or revolves unceasingly in continuous change and upheaval. Its two ‘hands’ of night and day show the passage of its seconds, and its ‘hands’ of years and centuries show the passage of its minutes and hours respectively. Time plunges the world into waves of decay and, leaving the past and future to non-existence, allows existence for the present only” (Twenty-Fifth Word, p. 455) [3].

From this conclusion of Bediuzzaman, we understand that different times are generated through perpetual flow of the heavenly bodies in space (moon, sun, planets and stars.) Bediuzzaman, in his evaluation of the metaphysical time, also states that all the existence in the universe, with their specific and suitable outfits obtained from the spiritual world, gains an image and flow in the river of time. He points to the fact that all beings continuously come from the future, arrive at current time for a rest, and join with the past, therefore allowing the formation of the time river: “What we call time, a mighty river flowing in creation, has a reality like everything else. Its reality is like the ink and pages of the writing of Power on the Tablet of Effacement and Reaffirmation. Only God knows the Unseen” (Tenth Letter, p. 59) [4]. Every moment of the reality of time is a stage of creation under the divine command of “Be, and it is” (Qur’an 2:117).

The creation of things and events in the present cosmos is initiated in the quantum world by the union of each particle to the existence in a chain of countless contingencies. The state before a matter enters the visible, sensible form (macroscopic state) is described, by Bediuzzaman, as the “sphere of contingency,” i.e. the realm of creation, while modern science names it as the quantum world and reality which is composed by n number of micro states in which contingent realities overlap.

The tablets (phases) that host the characteristic contingencies of creation via the instant transition of phases and increasing number of microstates are described as “the Tablet of Effacement and Reaffirmation [Lawh Mahw wa Ithbat])” by Bediuzzaman:

[T]hrough the Manifest Record’s dictates (namely, Divine Destiny’s decree and instruction), Divine Power uses particles to create or write the chain of beings, each link of which is a sign in the creation of things, on the metaphorical page of time (the Tablet of Effacement and Reaffirmation). Thus particles move because of that writing’s vibration and motion, which occurs while beings pass from the Unseen world to the manifest (material) world, from Knowledge to Power. The Tablet of Effacement and Reaffirmation is a slate for writing and erasing, an ever-changing notebook of the fixed and constant Supreme Preserved Tablet, and this latter Tablet’s notebook in the sphere of contingencies, where all things are unceasing manifestations of life and death, existence and ephemerality. This is the reality of time. What we call time, a mighty river flowing in creation, has a reality like everything else. Its reality is like the ink and pages of the writing of Power on the Tablet of Effacement and Reaffirmation. (Tenth Letter, Risale-i Nur Collection, pp. 58-59) [4]

In the Islamic philosophy of existence, the universe is represented as a book; the space-time union is as the union of pen and ink. The nature of existence and phenomena are explained with these representations.

The Preserved Tablet

Mentioned several times in the Qur’an, the Preserved Tablet (Imamun Mubin) and Manifest Record (Kitabun Mubin) (these are considered by some to refer to the same thing), encompass the present world with all its details and fineness, and each particle with their original and true forms that circulate within the infinite sphere of contingency. The transmission of registered events and particles in this book of knowledge through the sphere of contingency to the world of particles takes place in the Tablet of Effacement and Reaffirmation, or the quantum world that can be likened to a scratch pad. Phase transformations – the intercrossing of possible scenarios and overlapping representative images – here are not the reality itself but a variable, transitional, possible micro state reflection of it. The transition of the originals in the Supreme Preserved Book from a state of possibility to a present form, as from the spiritual to the material world, from unknown to the known, require particles to transform from one state to another (tahawwulat-i zarrat). These transitions of phases (vibrations) on the edges of the visible, determined world (space) generate the phenomenon of time. In fact, time follows creation in space (kawn). All of the images and the formations that are called existence in the cosmos are determiners of space.

In other words, space is a cosmos which transforms continuously from non-existence to existence. This way the universe becomes like a scratch pad and always new manifestations occur in the time river that flows through it. “Now is the time, now is the moment” is a mystical expression of this truth, which, for Ibn Arabi, is composed of a constant moment (an-i daim) and the true reality of time corresponds with the moment of manifestations of Divine Names over existence [5]. According to him, with the extreme power of Divine singular oneness over multiple beings, the earth gets terminated via the hand of non-existence every moment, because the existence of a world means that the non-existence of it has become a “moment.” This way, the Manifest One (al-Zahir) imposes His manifestation first on the hidden, then the Immanent One (al-Batin) imposes His immanence on the manifest; therefore the world continuously get terminated and created. At this stage, the Almighty wraps the current moment of things and events under His names the First (al-Awwal) and the Last (al-Akhir) into the past and the future. Later, the Manifest takes the authority, followed by the Immanent, allowing creation renewed until the doomsday.

Time, within its own relative nature, is thus a complex manifestation of the Divine names the First and the Last, the Manifest and the Immanent through the vibrations and movements of particles. The measurement of time is carried out over the movement and speed of the particles and objects. According to Ibn Arabi again, the continual renewal of similarities determined over time happens in such a way that as one thing gets terminated another similar thing (fractal) begins to get created instantaneously [5]. While, for instance, the color white disappears in the form of continual phase transitions, another white that is similar but not the same gets created. If an opposite black were to be created upon termination of the white color, this would disrupt the nature of the things. Existence and creation get renewed together, within the mysterious flow of time and the formation of space, every instant: “Every (moment of every) day, He is in a new manifestation (with all His Attributes and Names as the Divine Being)” (Qur’an 55:29).

Behind the fact that images are temporary and truth is eternal, stands the question of what the mysterious works of time and the reality of the matter really are. Every particle being created in the smallest frame of time, and therefore generating time and eventually flowing in this river that it has caused bears a wisdom of a divine law intertwined with a fine secret, a purpose that reads a universal meaning, an integrity among the opposites, existence in non-existence, and purpose in what seems to be without a purpose. There is no absurdity or anything that is against wisdom emerging from these states that rise as a result of deceptive conflict and limited willpower that seem as transforming, deforming, and dispersing formations and visual images in the sphere of contingencies. The expression of Imam Ghazali; “Nothing is better than what comes out of the sphere of contingencies,” is a beautiful declaration of the perfect wisdom and integrity of continual creation of all things in the page of the time.

References

1. Canan, Ibrahim. 2009. Islam’da Zaman Tanzimi [Time Management in Islam] Izmir: Akademi Yay. Third edition. p. 38.
2. Goodman, L. A. 1997. “Time in Islam,” Asian Philosophy, 2:1, 17.
3. Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said. 2010. The Words: The Reconstruction of Islamic Belief and Thought. NJ: The Light, Inc.
4. Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said. 2007. The Letters: Epistles on Islamic Thought, Belief, and Life. NJ: The Light, Inc.
5. Ibn-i Arabi. The Universal Tree and the Four Birds – Treatise on Unification (al-Ittihad al-kawni). Translated by Angela Jaffray. Anqa Publishing in association with Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi Society.

Particles that are the size of a nano (a billionth of a meter) are of great interest to science today. The most common saying in the engineering world is “the smaller the better,” and thus nanotechnology (technology of nano sizes) has become very popular in almost no time at all. Everybody is now trying to nanosize their ultrahigh technological instruments to catch up with ongoing nano-fashion. Taking this new technology into account, the use of the word “particles” instead of “atoms” that we encounter while reading about how the Law of Wisdom bestows important duties to inanimate and unconscious particles helps to unravel the mystery of how nanosized particles act under the Highest Command.3

As organisms made up of zillions of cells, we human beings are amazing biological systems. No moment passes without millions of reactions happening in our body. Most of them, indeed, all of them are being carried out by molecules, in particular supramolecular structures (also called enzymes) supplied with hands, arms or some other robotic units of several atoms. These are the actual “particles” on which the world is running.

The verse Not an atom’s weight of whatever there is in the Heavens or in the Earth escapes Him, nor is there anything smaller than that, or greater, but it is recorded in a Manifest Book2 has only clearly been understood since nanoscience has emerged. Some still interpret the meaning of zarrat (the original word used in Qur’an) as meaning atoms instead of particles, but it will not be long before they recognize that the actual work is being done by particles which are made up of molecules that consist of more than one atom, a state that is in agreement with Qur’an.

Zarrat are, first of all, the bricks used to build beings, worlds, and universes. They act in the name of the Glorious Creator, doing the work necessary for the continuity of systems. They work together as a team, in most cases without any trouble, demonstrating that the One Supreme Being is in command.

Secondly, the zarrat act as a multi-purpose cultivation field for all different crops, addressing the infinite treasury of His mercy and giving samples of His endless power.

The renewal of the zarrat each spring like an endless flood flowing through the world from the infinite treasury of His power, while preserving the property of being recyclable is a clear indication of the Absolute Commander.

Obviously, the so-called nanoscale sciences use these zarrat in action. Those particles work, doing whatever they have been told to do as they are obedient slaves of the Greatest King; however, some scientists fool themselves, assuming that each one of these particles is equipped with all-encompassing knowledge and power.

Above all else, the verse, “There is nothing that does not glorify Him with His praise, proclaiming that He is free from having any partners and all praise belongs to Him exclusively,”4 perfectly sums up the situation: the zarrat, the particles, have all been created to praise Him, the Creator, the Only Owner.

Notes

1. Nursi, Bediuzzaman Said, The Words, (translated by Sukran Vahide), Sozler Publications, 1998, page 570.
2. Qur’an, 34:3.
3. Nursi, ibid, 1998, page 580.
4. Qur’an, 17:44.

This means that the One Who looks after the universe does so very well. Its Owner sweeps, cleans, and orders the vast universe and Earth as though they were small rooms. In relation to the size of the universe, there is no dirt or rubbish. Indeed, considering the size of the universe, its cleanliness and tidiness are remarkable.

If some people do not wash themselves or clean their small room for a month, they become extremely dirty. That is to say, the cleanliness, purity, and luminosity of the Earth arise from a continuous, wise, and diligent cleaning. If it were not so, in one year all of the 100,000 animal species on this planet would have choked to death.

Also, the debris of the planets and the heavens, which manifest life and death, and of satellites and stars would have smashed not only our heads and those of animals, but also the head of the earth itself. They would have rained down on our heads rocks the size of mountains, and driven us away from our homeland in this world. However, a few meteorites, as a warning, have fallen on this planet but have not broken any heads.

Furthermore, the corpses of 100,000 animal species and the debris of 200,000 plant species each year on our planet resulting from the alternations and struggles of life and death would have so dirtied the land and the sea that conscious creatures, rather than loving and delighting in our planet, would have felt disgust and aversion and fled to death and non-existence.

Just as a bird cleans its wings with ease and a scribe cleans his or her pages, so are the wings our planet, the birds of the heavenly bodies, and the pages of the Book of the Universe cleaned and made beautiful. This is true to such a degree that those who do not consider the infinite beauty of the Hereafter and do not think with belief become lovers of this world’s cleanliness and beauty. They worship it.

The Earth and the universe display the greatest manifestation of the Divine Name of the Most Holy (Quddus). Not only do meat-eating cleaners of the seas and eagles of the skies obey the commands proceeding from that sacred cleansing, but those cleansing officials that gather up corpses, like worms and ants, also do so. Just as red and white blood corpuscles flowing in the body obey those sacred commands to cleanse the body’s cells, so does breathing purifly and cleanse the blood.

As eyelids obey the command to cleanse the eye and flies to brush their wings, so do the atmosphere and the clouds obey the same command. Wind blows upon the particles of dust and soil settled on the face of the earth and cleans it. The sponge-like clouds sprinkle water on the garden of the earth and becalm the dust and soil. Then, in order not to dirty the sky, the wind quickly collects the earth’s rubbish, withdraws, and hides itself with perfect orderliness. It displays the beautiful face and eye of the skies as swept and polished, all sparkling and shining.

All stars, elements, minerals, and plants obey the command to clean, as do all particles and atoms. They pay attention to cleanliness within the astonishing upheavals of change and transformation. They never congregate anywhere unnecessarily and get in the way. And if they somehow become soiled, they are quickly cleaned, for they are impelled by a hand of wisdom to acquire the cleanest, neatest, and most shining states, and the most beautiful, pure, and subtle forms.

Thus this single act of cleansing, which is a single truth, is the greatest manifestation of the Greatest Name, the Name of the Most Holy, which shows itself throughout the universe. Like the sun, it shows itself directly to far-seeing and broad-sighted eyes as the Divine existence and Unity together with the Most Beautiful Divine Names.

It has been established with decisive proofs in the Risale-i Nur that since the act of ordering and order manifest the Names of Sapient and All-Wise; the act of weighing and balance manifest the Names of Justice and All-Just; the act of adorning and munificence manifest the Names of Beauteous and All-Generous; the act of sustaining and bestowal manifest the Names of Sustainer and Most Compassionate-as each is a single truth and a single act, they demonstrate the necessary existence and Unity of a Single Being. In the same way, the act of purifying and cleansing manifest and display the Name of the Most Holy, and demonstrates, just as the sun does, the existence of the Necessarily Existent One, and, just like daylight does, His Unity.

Just as these wise acts of ordering, balancing, adorning, and cleansing point to a Single Maker by reason of their unity of kind in the universe, so do most of the Beautiful Names. Indeed, each of the 1,001 Names has its greatest manifestation in the universe. The act proceeding from that manifestation points to the Single Unique One with clarity and decisiveness in relation to its extensiveness.

The self-evident truths and single acts that illuminate the universe and make it smile, like the universal wisdom causing all things to conform to its law and order, the comprehensive munificence that adorns all things and causes them to smile, the all-embracing mercy that makes all things pleased and happy, the universal provision of sustenance that nurtures and gives pleasure to all things, and the life and the giving of life that connects each thing with all things and makes each thing benefit from, and to some extent own, all things point to a single All-Wise, All-Generous, and All-Compassionate One, a single Sustainer, a single Ever-Living Giver of Life as plainly as light points to the sun.

If those hundreds of extensive acts, each of which is a clear proof of God’s Unity, are not attributed to the Single Unique One, each necessarily becomes impossible in hundreds of respects. For example, let alone such self-evident truths and single evidences as wisdom, providence, mercy, sustaining and giving of life, if only the act of cleansing is not attributed to the Creator, then the following becomes necessary:

• All creatures connected to this act of cleansing, from particles and flies to the elements and the stars, would have to know and consider the adorning, balancing, and cleansing of the vast universe and would act accordingly, or

• Each would have to possess the sacred attributes of the Creator of the world, or

• Each would have to be present at a consultative meeting the size of the universe in order to regulate the equilibrium of the adorning and cleansing of the universe and its incomings and outgoings.

Moreover, innumerable particles, flies, stars, and other elements of creation would have to attend this meeting. Hundreds of such impossibilities would have had to occur so that the universal, comprehensive, and exalted adorning, purifying, and cleansing seen and observed everywhere could exist. It is not impossible only once, but millions of times over.

If daylight and the imaginary miniature suns reflected in all shining objects on the planet were not attributed to the sun and were said to be something other than the manifestation of the sun’s reflection, it would be necessary for the actual sun to be present in all fragments of glass, drops of water, and snowflakes glistening on the earth’s surface, and even in all particles of air, so that the universal light could exist.

Thus, wisdom also is a light; all-embracing mercy is a light; adorning, balancing, ordering, and cleansing are each an encompassing light in the sense that they are rays of the Pre-Eternal Sun. So, see how misguidance and unbelief have entered a bog from which there is no way out! See just how ridiculous is such a view. Say: “Praise be to God for the religion of Islam and complete and perfect belief!”

This exalted, universal cleansing that keeps the universe clean is the manifestation and requirement of the Divine Name of the Most Holy. And just as the glorification of all creatires looks to the Name of the Most Holy, so does the Name of the Most Holy require the cleanliness of all of them. It is because of this sacred connection of cleanliness that a hadith states 1: “Cleanliness is a part of belief,” 2 thereby deeming it to be a light of belief. And the verse: “Indeed, God loves those who turn to Him constantly, and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean” (2:222) shows that cleanliness attracts God’s love.

From The Risale-i Nur Collection, The Thirtieth Flash, The First Point.

FOOTNOTES

1. We must not forget that bad qualities, false beliefs, sins, and mistaken beliefs and practices are all instances of moral and spiritual dirt.
2. Muslim, Tahara, 1; Darimi, Vudu’, 2; Muslim, Musnad 5:342; al’Ajiuni, Khashf al-Khafa’, 291.

Before proceeding to go into details relating to the subject of Divine Decree and Destiny, we had better give the translation of some relevant verses:

With Him are the keys of the Unseen. None but He knows them. He knows what is in the land and the sea. Not a leaf falls but He knows it, not a grain amid the darkness of the earth, naught of wet or dry but it is in a Manifest Book. (al-An’am, 6.59)

There is nothing hidden in the heaven or the earth but it is in a Manifest Book. (a1-Nanzl, 27.75) It is We Who bring the dead to life.

We record what they send (of their lives and conduct to the Hereafter) and what is left of them. All things we have kept in a Manifest Record. (Ya Sin, 36.12)

They say: ‘When (will) this promise (be fulfilled), if you are truthful?’ Say: ‘The knowledge is with God only, and I am but a plain warner.’ (al-Mulk, 67. 25-6)

Nay, but it is a glorious Qur’an. On a Preserved Tablet. (al Buruj, 85. 21-2)

In a sense, Decree and Destiny are of the same meaning, but in another, Destiny means pre-determination or pre-ordinance, while Decree means execution of this ordinance or putting it into effect.

To define more clearly and elaborately, Destiny means that from the microcosm (atoms) to the macrocosm (the universe as a whole), from particles to galaxies, God Almighty, Who knows everything down to the minutest and Whose Knowledge includes all space and time while Himself is absolutely beyond all time and space, gives existence in His Knowledge to all things or beings and assigns to each a certain shape, life-span, function or mission and certain particularities. This can be understood by an analogy-God’s is the highest comparison, and He is absolutely beyond all comparisons and different from whatever a man conceives of Him -with an author’s having the full and exact knowledge of the book he will write and arranging it in his mind in chapters, sections, paragraphs, sentences and words before writing it. In this sense, Destiny is almost identical with Divine Knowledge or Destiny is a title of Divine Knowledge, and is also called the Manifest Record or the Supreme Preserved Tablet.

Destiny also means that God makes everything according to a certain, particular measure and in exact balance. The Qur’an declares:

God knows what every female bears and what the wombs absorb and what they grow. And everything with Him is measured. (Al Ra’d, 13.8)

The sun and the moon are made punctual according to a calculation. The stars and the trees adore, in subservience to Him. And the sky He has uplifted; and He has set the balance, that you exceed not the balance, but observe the balance strictly, nor fall short thereof. (al-Rahman, 55. 5-9)

The exact balance and harmony in the universe clearly show the existence of Divine Destiny; that is, the universe, as a whole and with all the individual things or beings in it, which display an exact measure, balance, order and harmony, shows that everything is determined, measured, created and governed by God Almighty. Assertions like determinism, which is upheld by many, including even the supporters of the Marxist ideology, in explaining the order and operation of the universe including the human kingdom, are a tacit admission of Destiny, even though absolute determinism is incompatible with Islam in explaining the actions of man.

All seeds, fruit stones, measured and proportioned forms, and the extraordinary order and harmony of the universe, and its operation for billions of years without displaying the slightest breakdown or deviation in any part of it, all this demonstrates that everything takes place according to the absolute determination of God Almighty, Who is the All-Knowing and the All-Powerful. Each seed or fruit stone and even each ovum fertilized by a male sperm is like a case formed by Divine Power into which Divine Destiny has in-built the future life-history of a plant or an animal being. Divine Power employs atoms or particles according to the measure established by Divine Destiny as building blocks in growing the particular seed into the particular plant and the particular fertilized ovum into the particular being. This means that the future life-history of that plant or the animal being and the principles to govern its life are pre-recorded in the seed or the fertilized ovum as determining factors and processes.

Although the basic materials from which plants and animal beings, including human beings, are formed are the same, there is an almost infinite variety between species and individuals. The plants and animals that grow from the same constituent basic elements display such harmony and proportion, and yet such abundant diversity, that man cannot help but conclude that each of them is individually given its particular form and measure. It is Divine Destiny which establishes this measure.

A single seed displays Destiny in two ways: one by demonstrating the Manifest Record (Imamun Mubin), the other by displaying the Manifest Book (Kitabun Mubin). The Manifest Record is, as was pointed out above, another title for Divine Knowledge and Command, comprehensive of the universe both as a whole and with all its parts, big or small, and all the events in it. As everybody knows, the seed of a plant is also its ‘memory’. That is, a plant which grows from a seed also results in multiple seeds, in which the entire life-history of the plant have been recorded so that they can grow into new plants, which are almost identical with the original because plants do not have conscious spirits endowed with free will. Thus, besides demonstrating the Manifest Record and therefore Divine Destiny and Knowledge in which everything is present or exists with all its individualized particularities, a seed also indicates the Supreme Preserved Tablet (Lawhun Mahfuz) and corresponds to human memory in the human kingdom. By the way, since it indicates that the life-histories of creatures are recorded, a seed also points to afterlife.

The Manifest Book is another title for Divine Will and God’s creational and operational laws of the universe. If we call the Manifest Record Destiny Formal or Theoretical, the Manifest Book can be referred to as Destiny Actual. The future full- grown form of a plant or an animal being, which displays all the content of the seed or fertilized ovum, can be understood as its Destiny Actual.

In short, like seeds or plants or fertilized ovums and animal beings, everything in the universe clearly points to Divine Destiny, determining, judging, giving measure, particularizing and individualizing. True dreams which bring news of certain future events, are another, undeniable indication of Destiny or Divine ‘pre-determination’.

Question

Why is belief in Destiny included among the essentials of faith?

Answer

Because of self-conceit and the weakness of devotion, man tends to attribute to himself his accomplishments and good deeds and feels proud of himself. Whereas, as the Qur’an explicitly states, God creates you and what you do (al-Saffat, 37.96), it is the Divine Compassion which demands good deeds and the Power of the Lord which creates them. Whoever ponders over his life, he will realize and confess to himself that God has directed him to good acts, usually prevented him from doing wrong deeds and by endowing him with the sufficient capacity, power and means required for any accomplishment, favoured him with many accomplishments and good deeds. God guides man to good deeds and makes him succeed in willing and doing them, so the real cause of a man’s good deeds is the Divine Will. A man can possess and own them by means of faith and sincere devotion and by praying to God to be able to deserve them, consciously believing in the necessity of doing them and being pleased with what God has ordained for him. He can never be boastful of his good deeds and accomplishments and put on airs among people; what behoves him is to always be thankful to God and humble.

On the other hand, while attributing to himself his accomplishments and good deeds, man likes to absolve himself of his sins and misdeeds by ascribing them to Destiny. However, since God never likes a sin or wrong act, nor approves it, it is man himself who causes sins and commits them by his free will. Yet it is God Who creates sins (in the sense of enabling them to take place or giving them external existence) as well as good acts, simply because if He did not do so, the free will with which He has endowed man, would be annulled. Man wills to commit his sins. As was explained earlier, God calls man to good deeds, guides him to them and always inspires them in him, but man commits sins of his own free will and disobeys his Creator. Therefore, man is completely responsible for his sins and misdeeds. However, in order to protect himself against sins and the temptations of Satan and his carnal self, man must both try to remove his inclinations towards sins through repentance and asking forgiveness for them, and direct and exhort himself to do good deeds through prayer, devotion and trust in God.

In short, man has free will and is enjoined to follow the religious obligations and refrain from sins and wrong deeds. He cannot by any means ascribe his sins to God. Divine Destiny exists so that the believer does not grow proud of his good deeds by ascribing them to himself. Rather he must be thankful to God because of them. Man has free will so that the rebellious carnal self does not rid itself of the consequences of its sins by ascribing them to Destiny.

A second, important point to mention is that man usually complains about past events and the misfortunes that have struck him. Worse than that, he cannot save himself from falling into despair and abandoning himself to a dissipated life. He may even go so far as to complain against God. However, Destiny exists so that a man should relate past events and misfortunes to it in order not to be driven to despair and provide himself with relief, security and consolation. On the other hand, as will be discussed below, since Destiny does not exclude human free will, man is responsible for his future life and whatever he does consciously and intentionally.

In sum, whatever is (including misfortunes) should be considered in the light of Destiny, and what is to come, and sins and questions of responsibility, should be referred to human free will. In this way, the extremes of fatalism (jabr) and the denial of the role of Destiny in human actions (i’tizal, the view of the Mu’fazila) may be reconciled.