Do You Accept Destiny for Finding Peace?

Do You Accept Destiny for Finding Peace?

By Deana Nassar

How many of us have had a day in our life when we become victims of bereavement, bad luck, sickness, and defamation, and in our pain and sorrow we let guilt, jealousy, and self-imposed loneliness make the bad situation even worse.

After all we are human.

Nonetheless, rather than act as victims we may use these situations to learn from them and improve ourselves and simply be comforted by the fact that God works in ways too sophisticated for our minds.

Belief in Qadar, or divine destiny, prevents us from becoming too despondent.

When tragedy strikes us, we must understand that it is the will of God, for it to happen. That way, we learn to accept it with patience and humility rather than despair and frustration.

A beautiful hadith comes to mind which has many a time left my heart at ease, where the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) says:

«If the whole nation were to gather together to benefit you they would only benefit you with that which Allah had already written for you and if the whole nation were to gather to harm you they could only harm you with that which Allah had already written to harm you. The pen has been lifted and the ink has dried » (Ahmad).

In fact, I have this copied and pasted in many places around the house to remind my family and myself foremost to live each day to the fullest, not dwell on yesterday or consider what might happen tomorrow.

It is vital to the Muslim’s belief that we understand this concept. After all, the word Muslim means “one who submits to the will of God.” By accepting His power, knowledge and control of our destiny, we learn to submit to what He has prescribed for us. Inner peace can only be achieved if the obstacles that are beyond our control are accepted by us patiently as part of God’s destiny.

Despite this notion being easy to understand, some individuals have erroneous ideas about fate and destiny and imagine that this doctrine causes stagnation and inactivity, restraining man from all forms of effort to improve his life.

The Prophet expressed himself movingly on this matter where he stressed.

«An age will come for the people of my community when they will commit sin and inequity, and in order to justify their corruption and pollution, they will say: 'God's fate and destiny decreed that we act thus.' If you encounter such people, tell them I disown them».

The hadith explains that despite the fact that God has a foreknowledge of everything that He created and the events unfolding themselves exactly according to it, this does not imply that man has been completely deprived of the freedom of action. The foreknowledge of God is an acknowledged fact, but it should not be interpreted in the sense of predestination, for if we do so, we shall have to conjure up eternity as a store of ready-made events, from which they drop one by one like a glass hour and its sand particles.

It is imperative though, we understand that God does have knowledge over all things. He knows what will happen to us before we do. He knows the outcome of all of our decisions. He has stated in the Quran that everything that will happen throughout all creation was already written.

{No calamity befalls on the earth or in yourselves but it is inscribed in the Book of Decrees (Al-Lawh Al-Mahfouz) before We bring it into existence. Verily, that is easy for Allah} [Al-Hadid:22].

Prophet Muhammad also said:

«Allah wrote down the decrees of creation fifty thousand years before He created the heavens and the earth» (Muslim).

It is significant as good practicing Muslims who believe in this divine destiny to try to live according to the laws of Islam, pray to God for guidance when making decisions (Istikharah), and put our best effort forward in everything we do. Then, and only then, we should leave the outcome of these actions to God and willingly accept whatever He has decreed.

I personally have benefited in believing this decree. It has offered me peace of mind and contentment giving me the will power and determination to go further in the way of God. Many times, things I had planned to do have been disrupted. Where I have always been mindful to plant the seeds where I wanted to see blossom in my life I am always grounded when I see the posters around the house reminding me that the pens have lifted and the pages have dried.

I have found that true inner peace is found by submitting to God, living this life for Him, remembering Him and by making the Hereafter more of a priority than this life. We must acknowledge that whatever happens regardless of whether we had or have no control over, then God has put in it some good, whether or not we are able to grasp what is good in it; the good is still there.  So we accept it!

I tell my children and friends if there are a lot of things we want to do and are unable to or something has served as an obstacle we are blessed to be comforted by the fact that we tried and we prayed but God has other plans. It will be helpless to recapture the days and nights we wasted in worry, or the hurt we inflicted, or the love we failed to return because we were wallowing in our own sorrow.

By experiencing every day to the fullest, in full belief of our destiny and trust in God and His wonderful and mysterious ways, we can eliminate regrets and when the journey called life has finished we may face God on the Day of Judgment head held high simply because we submitted to His will and believed in His divine law.

Remember that whatever happens we must concede that it is God’s destiny and that it is God’s trial and accept that it ultimately is for our good and has good in it. 

God created this world and us in it as a means to attain Paradise and the trials of this world is our own spiritual growth.

If we can accept this destiny and God in our hearts, we will find inner peace and have a more satisfying and productive life ultimately leading to happiness in the Hereafter.