I think I have spoken on this subject at length in one of the earlier question and answer sessions here and while you were doing the catalogue couldn’t you find out where it was? It didn’t yet come up to me, sir. Okay. So you would like me to… Yes, sir. So that is… The gentleman could be… The cassette could be sent, sir. I tried to explain it once before that destiny or predestination can be categorized into different forms, different spheres and without that categorization you will not be able to understand what destiny is.
The fact is that the entire plane of things by Allah is destiny. Not only destiny but predestined in the sense that before anything was created the blueprint was present. This is why it put some scholars in great difficulty early scholars of Islam and they went into very severe debates about the creation of the Holy Quran or otherwise. So much so that people went on teaching each other during Mahmood Rashi’s regime who believed that the Holy Quran was created. Those who did not believe in the creation of the Holy Quran were put to death and tortured and most inhumanly treated. So this is the difference which they could not understand. There is creation, the act of creation when substance and form is given to something that is different.
Apart from that everything is predestined because the blueprint has to be there in the knowledge of Allah. So if that is the blueprint for everything the Holy Quran becomes a part of the general scheme not as distinct from others. Because otherwise we have to believe that there are sections which were not in the knowledge of Allah before the creation. So in one sense everything is predestined. Before everything is given form or shape it is in the knowledge of Allah. And not only in the knowledge of Allah in the scheme of things there are two different things I will come to differentiate between the two things later on.
Everything which was to be born ultimately had all the necessary prerequisites created much before that particular thing or being was created. For instance, before man was created all the requirements for the man human beings were already provided in nature in every form. In the form of national laws in the form of provisions hidden provisions as well as provisions on the surface of earth. And for the whole future development of mankind whatever material was required by him that material was also created. And in the same proportion as it would be required. And there is no age where man can say that I have advanced beyond my requirements.
I have thought of something very clever thought but unfortunately I don’t have enough material to meet that requirement and the provisions have been left behind me. No stage has ever come in the history of man where this relationship can be established that man has advanced beyond the provisions. One store of protein ends and another opens up. Like a medley race it goes on before one is finished the other is ready in front and there is no no man’s land in between. No gap in between. So this is all a destiny. Or you can as I have said you can call it a predestination. Now under these rules and regulations things are in a way compelled to move in a certain way in a certain direction and they cannot have their own choice. As far as the creator creation of consciousness is concerned that is of later time I will come to that later on. But just before the time that consciousness was created what we observe is a complete helplessness of everything which is born.
They are governed by certain laws and rules and none can deviate from that. It’s like the life angels which cannot deviate from the set path Allah has set for them. Now comes another factor that of the creation of consciousness. This begins very very slowly by the creation of life. With the creation of kingdom of plants the early creation in fact it was common between zoological life and botanical life. But later on a decision was made and to begin with let’s see that life was created in the form of vegetation to begin with. And vegetation was spread all over the surface of earth and that was also distinct and planned and well timed. Because the animals which were to be created later on they required that vegetation for their survival.
So by the time dinosaurs were created the whole of the surface of earth was full of verdure and greenery and there was so much food already present for these dinosaurs that until the time that they were destined to be removed from earth forever they were well fed and well provided. That’s just one second example. But if you study the ecology then you’ll come to understand that it’s an ocean of creation which cannot be comprehended entirely by any man or any even generation after generation of man cannot comprehend completely the beauty and the perfection of a scheme of things. If only you look at the ecology not earlier than this so all this tells us a predestination and a state of helplessness except in the animal kingdom. When the animal kingdom comes into being we notice that they can do things and avoid doing things.
Yet there are subtle instincts which control their actions and they are not punished in the sense of morality yet they are punished in the sense of mistakes and the mistakes they commit are punished immediately by the national laws. So they are given two courses open to them either to adopt this or to adopt that. And it is the survival of the fittest in the sense that the more intelligent more conscious a being is ultimately it breaks down to consciousness I mean intelligence as we study in the context of the early life is synonymous with the consciousness.
So when I say intelligence I mean consciousness when I say consciousness I mean intelligence. So the level of their consciousness is the determining factor for certain actions they take for certain movements they make and if the decision is wrong they are punished. With the result that the more conscious a being is the greater ability it has for the survival. Not applicable in every aspect of human development of life of course there are so many other factors in life but this is one of the prominent ones which I want to develop further to answer this question. This is why I am just choosing consciousness and its role in the evolution. So this has become a preferred state consciousness which ultimately grows into wisdom with the storage of memory the interrelationship of that stored memory and so on and so forth.
And then we realize that more the wiser an animal is greater is its capacity if other factors are constant to survive and overcome the difficulties in its way of survival. So we are taught from that time that if you commit a mistake you will be punished. If you do not commit a mistake you will be rewarded. Although still it is comparatively unconscious decision as compared to human disease and there is no morality involved yet for billions of years we are taught and these things go into our genetic codes and they have become inseparable with our development. Reward and punishment these are the two ultimate goals towards which life is being pushed on until the stage of humanity is reached. And for a long time human beings are also trained without addition of any moral system. In the same way they have further evolved in the same lines. Reward and punishment responsibility for one’s actions and ultimate achievement is subject to your effort the effort you put in plus the rightness of direction of that effort.
If the direction of that effort is correct and right then whether it is the amount of effort you have put in plus the manner you go about it all these factors make you a sort of your own god in a limited sense. Now you are getting free from a sort of predestination. Although all things around are still predestined the whole plan of your being is predestined yet within that predestination you are being given an elbow room for elbowing. And more and more option is being given to you. Until the stage comes where suddenly it dawns upon you that there are two parts not only of this worldly life but of life to come. And it is there that the morality enters and religion begins.
And before that moment dawns upon humanity that is the under pocket world. Everything is well prepared and man is fully equipped with all the necessary requisites for making his own decisions in important matters. And realizing fully that there can be a supernatural being a god and there can be a system of morality as applicable to us as a system of material pursuits was applicable to us before this. And we will be rewarded and punished exactly in the same manner as we have experienced before. When that stage reached then a new destination dawns or predestination dawns upon man and that was pertaining to his life after death. And the rule the first rule was manshaapanyo men manshaapanya because by this stage the man was fully capable of taking decisions and he was given total freedom with regard to his decision in one direction or another.
So that is despite the fact that the whole platform is predestined within that platform you are given room to move about. Like you can move in a plane in opposite direction to which plane is moving. The whole thing is without your outside your control. Yet within that there is some space available. Look at this earth. It is predestined to move in a certain direction and nobody can change a jot of its direction. Yet you are free to move about as if nothing is moving along with you. You are free to do whatever you please. So within the predestination there are spheres of destination controlled by you yourself. And that is where punishment and reward appear in the scheme of things.
And you are made responsible for your own actions. So these two things are not contradictory and paradoxical to each other. They fit perfectly well within each other. Comparative to each other they are in full accord. But there are so many other aspects. For instance of disadvantageous births, advantageous collisions in life, happiness and sorrow, to be born with a silver spoon and to be born with nothing, to be born in a wicked house, to be born in a noble family and the comparative actions which are apparently out of control of a person who is born in certain circumstances. All these factors plus the religious factors some are born in Christianity, some in Hinduism, some in Confucianism and all this adds to the confusion of this destiny within predestination. We appear to be free, we appear to be responsible of our own actions, yet we appear to be totally helpless. Within the sphere of our own decisions and freedom of our decisions when you look at all these factors one feels disgusted and totally despaired.
What he sees is apparently a freedom yet that freedom is checked from all sides and one has enjoyed no freedom. This is why one of the latest poets, Gurdu, described this situation यां कि स्याव उसफ़ेड में अपना दस क्यों है, सुरिथना है रात को रोरो सुपो किया और सुपो को जुंतु शाम किया यां कि स्याव उसफ़ेड, you know स्याव उसफ़ेड means destination and रात is स्याव and दिन is वाइट उसफ़ेड so how beautifully he has played fun on this स्याव उसफ़ेड he says यां कि स्याव उसफ़ेड में अपना दस क्यों है, सुरिथना है रात को रोरो सुपो किया और सुपो को जुंतु शाम किया नान थां मजबूरों पर ये तूमत है मुखतारी की चाहिए हैं तो आप करें आमको अपस परना किया it’s a difficult couplet to be translated but it’s a most beautiful couplet in this, in the context of this question.
So I shall attempt to translate it he says that in the scheme of things in this world our part is only this much that willy-nilly we turn the night into day crying and wailing for our helplessness in the state in which we find but despite these protestations we can’t help anything so somehow the night turns into the morning as if we have played a part in it while our part was only that of wailing and crying and somehow the days are turned again into nights as if we were responsible while the responsibility was only this much that it was very difficult to pass that heavy day but somehow we did so that is our part in the scheme of things O Lord, which you have created Question in Hindi The next verse Question in Hindi It is a completely unfounded allegation upon us helpless people and we can’t even help that you are the king and the emperor and the creator of things the master of destiny, do whatever you please so you have alleged that we are responsible for our actions what action, what responsibility, what freedom we know none everything is predestined by you and only the allegation is for us to share and so that we get punished ultimately this is a very serious I should say protestation to Allah for all this but when you really consider further and closely watch what is happening and compare the various situations in which man is told to have played no part and is suggested that he is completely helpless then you will observe by close study of the situations and again by a closer study of the Holy Quran and a better understanding of destination and our freedom within that destination then you will understand that all this beautiful poetry has no purpose, it has no foundation, no substance Allah has tried it we have a freedom of action and we are responsible for our actions rightly and justifiably the most beautiful rule laid down by the Holy Quran is this لا يُقَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا إِلَّا أُسَابٌ لَهَا مَا كَسَبَطٌ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا كَسَبَطٌ لا يُقَلِّفُ اللَّهُ نَفْسًا God will not force anything upon any being he will not be expected to perform things beyond his given capacity within that given capacity whatever that be if he consciously does some misdeed then he will be punished to the extent that he has committed that misdeed but even if he unconsciously does some good acts he will be rewarded for this the distinction between the verbs used for earning good or earning bad is a beautiful distinction.
Allah Ta’ala tells us لَهَا مَا كَسَبَطٌ كَسَبَط means just earning whether you put in a conscious effort or not anything which came into your hand you went somewhere and on the way you found something which did not belong to anybody else and you owned that, that would be yours you got a bird it came your way that would be yours so anything which you have whether you really do it with consciousness in plan and you put in a lot of effort for it or not that does not make any difference you will be the proprietor according to Allah of anything that you have consciously or unconsciously rightfully or sometimes wrongfully as well but as far as the law of punishment is concerned the Holy Quran uses the word اِكْتَسَبَة كَسَبَة and اِكْتَسَبَة although they have the same root but according to the Arabic grammar when a root is put into بابِ اِفْتِع then a new meaning is added to that كَسَبَة is to earn اِكْتَسَبَة means to earn consciously consciously with full responsibility knowing everything and then doing it so this is why when the sin of Adam is described in the Holy Quran.
The Holy Quran says لَمْ بَجِدْ لَهُ عَزْمًا who didn’t punish him because there was no conscious effort on his part he just made a mistake but عَزْم that intention, full intention of committing a crime that was added so this is the definition of sin provided by the Holy Quran now look back at every situation which was presented to you by me with regard to the determination of our role in the service if somebody is born among Hindus and he has not heard of the Holy Quran or the coming of the Holy Prophet or he has heard of them but has no capability of telling where they are right or wrong according to the Holy Quran مَنْ آمَنَ بِالله whoever has faith in God and does good deeds he will be rewarded not even the faith of a prophet or any prophet is mentioned in this regard there are verses of the Holy Quran where even prophets have been omitted totally because they are situations applying to certain people where they have no rightful means to judge the truth of the prophet sometimes the name of the they have never heard the name of the prophet so how can they be judged? according to the Holy Quran according to their own concept of goodness and evil if they are true to themselves what they think is right if they do accordingly what they think is wrong they abstain from doing it the Holy Quran gives them the glad tidings of the other they will go to heaven according to this verse and there are other verses and other reflections in the Holy Quran on this subject.
So the Holy Quran tells us that even those before us who were given the book for instance Jews and those who follow them for instance Christians if they act according to their own teachings rightfully and honestly and they do good deeds if they have no means of judging because Muhammad Mustafa Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam are truth then they would not be deprived of heaven and their good deeds would be provided heavenly so is translated in all these verses in different forms, in different situations if a man is born among thieves he has been provided with a smaller capacity for goodness so Allah says if he abstains within that small capacity from stealing once for the sake of Allah his act in the eyes of Allah may be much greater than a boy born in a saintly family who steals a small needle while he was provided with all the goodness and all the strength to abstain from committing it so when the rule for judging and rewarding is the capacity of each individual being and the knowledge the full knowledge of that capacity is with Allah and every individual will be judged according to that particular capacity and given circumstances then who can say that everything is predestined?
Those circumstances are predestined but each man is individually treated freely according to his own actions and only punished when he is justified he will be punished only rewarded when an occasion for reward can be found and no one can say because we were born in a given circumstances so we should not say that everything is possible for our actions because even in those circumstances each one knows that he is free once a professor highly educated and experienced academics came to see me in Hyderabad the same day and he was one of those you know who keep on thinking and go to meet various religious and other religious and scholars and some question goes on agitating their minds and they don’t find answer satisfy themselves and sometimes they begin to take pride and begin to talk among friends that look here we went to so and so and so and so and so and so and we studied this and that and still this question so this was one of the questions he had in mind and we used to talk about it in company so one of them we heard it and said why not come to the head of the MBA community who is visiting here and try it out so he came to me and with all the introduction he ultimately disclosed this secret so I told him you have been born in certain circumstances which you could not help of course.
I understand that I said but each day right from the morning till evening you go on making decisions and within your own sphere you know better than anybody else that you are given option each day many a time where you will take right decision or wrong decision according to your own standard of judgment and when you take wrong decision sometimes you feel that your heart is adversely influenced by that decision and you are not happy with yourself and you take actions when those actions ennoble you in your own eyes is that not correct? so he pondered for a while he said that is correct and also it is correct and I got the answer to my question no further question so that shows that he was a sensible man an honest person he was a true searcher after truth so the best judge of one’s choice is each individual himself apply this situation to yourself every day and you know better than anybody else that although your circumstances are predestined each action that you
