Transcription
Asalam alaikum. Welcome to another podcast. Welcome Dr. Omar Atila Au.
Thank you. Here we are again.
Yes, here we are again. And the questions keep coming in. And today we want to focus on something again very common, very commonly asked question. And that is that if Allah knows what where we're going to end up as in heaven or hell, why are we be being tested? It's kind of I guess the thinking is why doesn't he just put us there? He knows we're going to end up there anyway.
That's it. He's all knowing.
He's all knowing. Yeah. All powerful. Why are we then tested? What's your response to such a question?
I get this question a lot too, especially from the youth. You know, uh I think it's important to satisfy not only the hearts but the minds as well. Uh I always use this analogy when people say look iman is in the heart isn't it? There's we accept that. There's no doubt about that. But I always say that goes into the heart through the gates of the intellect through the brain through the mind. Uh that is the pass passageway to the heart.
So true.
So we need to be you know satisfied logically as well. We are rational beings. That's how human beings are. So people ask these sort of questions. Uh you know in Islam uh God Almighty is all knowing. uh nothing can remain outside or exist outside of his knowledge. There is no such a thing. He is all encompassing. Uh we we we use the term ilm which means his knowledge encompasses everything that can be encompassed. Everything.
You know things that exists, things that do not exist, things that if they did exist, what would happen?
Wow. His knowledge encompasses that as well. So this is to do with kadar to destiny as well this topic this question uh and uh as I mentioned a number of times before uh god almighty Allah subhana wa tala he is beyond spaceime uh meaning that there is no such a thing as the past the future for him they're all coexist you know the present past the future they all coexist In fact, he has already created them from his perspective. We are only trapped in our own, you know, spacetime slice. That is why for us, past is past, present has not arrived yet. But not for God, they all coexist.
They all coexist. Yeah.
So therefore, turning back to the question, going back to the question.
Yes, he knows exactly who is going to go to heaven, who is going to go to hell, where they end up. Him. There's no doubt about that. Then why does he test us? Well, he tests us. He puts us on this earth so that we know about ourselves. Yes, he knows but we don't know.
Uh because uh when we think about justice as well as we talked about it in our previous videos, you know, imagine a person uh God Almighty does not create this life as you said. He already knows and he creates the day of judgment.
And then he says you you you going to janam you're going to jet and that person going to janam wouldn't that person say what have I done to deserve this?
And and if Allah said look I knew you were going to be a kafir or whatever the person will say but you know yi you never gave me that chance.
You never gave me that chance. I may not have done it. I may have been a good.
That discussion. I think there was a movie uh Tom Cruz was in it, Minority Report.
Right?
You know, uh like through with computers they can figure out which person will commit a crime in the future.
Oh.
And they arrest them before they commit the crime. That's not fair. That is not justice. You know, that person would say, "What if I did not correct me?"
Exactly. Where's your evidence after Yes. You haven't done anything. So you're not guilty until you do it. So that would work in the same way too. You know, Allah knowing who is going to do what uh is not enough uh to satisfy justice. We got to look at it that way. Maybe to site a more simpler analogy. You're a teacher.
You have about let us say 20 you know students in the classroom. Uh you've been with them for a long time. You know exactly which student will fail, which student will pass. See it now.
Because you know all about them. That's how teachers are especially after a while. They know you know their students very well. Imagine if you said to the students you know this year you don't need to come to school at all.
Just come at the end of the year and I will give you your reports you know and then they come at the end of the year you know they open their reports. Some of them got zero. they failed. Some of them got, you know, a 100 marks, you know, they pass with flying colors. And the the ones that who failed, they would say, "But sir, you know, what is this?" And the teacher, you you go, "You know, I knew you would fail anyway.
From my experience, my knowledge." And the student will say, "But you never gave me that chance.
You never gave me that chance to study, to learn. you know I may have done well again even if you know it doesn't matter if you give me that chance.
You know I experience it myself and I fail then I know it's my fault.
True. Like unless you've gone through it and lived through it, it's you don't know you always like maybe I wouldn't have been that way but I guess going back to this you know about our final destination we said Allah knows but we need to go through it.
But I suppose you know the question is um do we say I'm going to paradise inshallah. So um do I do all the right things because Allah has predetermined paradise for me.
Or do I because I do all the right things I end up in paradise. They're two different things.
Yes, of course. Of course. Well, look, if Allah has predetermined paradise for you, it means then he made you do all the right things as well.
And that means that that is favoritism. He's favoring you above other people. Uh and Allah is not like that. Allah gives everyone the same opportunity.
And it will go against free will.
Will go against free will as well. That is why where people make the biggest mistake in regards to kadar and destiny. Uh kadar is a type of knowledge. That's what it is. It is not uh a command. So what is written uh in people's destiny is not commandments of Allah. It is actually uh descriptions of what would happen. So as I explained at the beginning since Allah is timeless is not part of spaceime as that we experience. Uh there is no concept of you know past, present and future. To him it means that he knows all slices of spaceime.
Uh so he has uh recorded his knowledge of the universe in all slices of spacetime of the universe. He he recorded in the mafus the preserved tablet.
But that knowledge depends on what actually takes place.
Right?
So what actually happens does not depend on that knowledge. So life is not or kad is not like a movie scenario you know uh somebody writes and then everybody in that uh movie plays that role.
So they write read the script and they play that role. It's not. You're saying it's not like that where the script is predetermined. When I say predetermined.
Yeah.
All they're doing is reading the script.
And they're following that. It's like there's no other choice.
Yeah. It's like, let us say the movie Titanic, you know.
Yeah.
Where Leonardo DiCaprio at the end drowns, you know, or goes through uh freezes in the water or whatever. Now, uh if life was like that, there was no other alternative for him. No matter how many times you play that movie, he's going to drown in that water. It is not like that there's this, you know, a joke about Tamil and Den. There are two characters from the Turkish, you know, tradition.
Right?
People who come from the you know like northern part of Turkey you know uh they keep on watching the same movie and and and they were coming out of the movie theater for the 14th time or something and and and Tamil goes to Den you know he couldn't save the girl again you know so this is what you know people think destiny is destiny is not like that.
Destiny is shaped by our you know uh freedom of action our choices shapes destiny. So we got to reverse it.
You know, time reverse it. So we make choices we decide on certain things. Allah knows the things that we're going to decide and writes the destiny. It's not the other way around.
Yeah.
We don't do things because it was written in our destiny. We do things through our free will.
That's why it's written in our destiny.
That's why it's written our destiny. So, we're getting the two. And I think because we're bound by time, that's why we struggle a lot with this idea because in our mind, it's like past, present, future, whereas he Allah is beyond past, present, and future.
Um, so what we decide to do uh is our free will. Uh and Allah is aware of that because he knows the past, present, future. It's been documented. But he's documented what we what we choose to do or what we in our world what we're going to choose to do.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's destiny is documented based upon our choices.
Yeah.
So this is very important. That is why some people have struggled to understand this and and I can understand that as well because uh it is a very complex topic. It is.
Philosophically as well. You know if he knows everything then how how could we have free will? You know knowledge knowing something does not annual free will does not negate free will. Like I use this analogy as well. If I knew what my neighbor would do the next day.
And my neighbor goes and commits a crime or something like that and then he ends up in custody and then he goes to to court, you know, faces the judge and he says, you know, I committed this crime because my neighbor knew that I was going to commit it. The judge would laugh.
Uh because my knowledge of him committing that crime doesn't compel him to commit that crime. He committed the crime through his free will. I just knew that he would commit. So we we should understand destiny similar to this.
Allah knowing what we'll do does not mean he's compelling us to do that. So there is no compulsion really in kad. Uh so destiny and free will goes hand in hand. They work together and and uh maybe from a action perspective, the ax feel we call them perspective uh our free will.
We call it the minor will uh is connected to absolute will of Allah which is you know absolute will.
Uh in a way that with a very basic condition where we make the intention he creates the action.
Mhm.
So we become responsible for our actions because we are the one who are making the intention. Uh but Allah doesn't become responsible because he creates that action.
Yeah.
Because we asked for it.
So destiny is not uh like a you know compulsionism.
It is not fatalism in Islam. Uh destiny is only information. It's only knowledge. Uh some people even ask you know then can we change our destiny you know like uh through giving charity making dua and things like that.
In reality you don't really change your destiny.
Maybe from your p p your own perspective you change something.
But you don't change the leaf the reason for that is Allah's knowledge cannot be altered so no matter which selection you make you know which which path you take. Allah already knows that.
Because it's not something that will happen in the future for him.
Cuz future doesn't exist.
Yeah.
Future doesn't exist for him. So, so if someone you know taking a really bad path, destroying their own life, suddenly changes starts becoming a good person, makes dua and you know and and and has this beautiful life, you know.
That was already known by Allah too.
So you don't say I did this this and I changed the no. Allah knew that as well. So no matter which path you decide to take take, Allah has already recorded that.
Cuz he knows what dua you're going to make, when you make it, what charity you gave, when you gave it.
So all that um is already in the mafles basically because already in the.
His knowledge is absolute. He knows everything. And I think that's where yeah, we have to think okay, I do have free will. Allah knows what choices I'm going to make. That's why that's how it's documented. Yeah.
That's really interesting how you say that is more about knowledge.
So that's why that's how it's documented. I'm not doing what I'm doing because it's documented. It's documented because Allah knows what I'm going to do. But I still have that free will to do whatever I'm going to do. You know that even from my perspective even the classical scholars.
When they explain uh usually when you ask people today too they will say is you know Allah knows the future and he has recorded it.
That's okay in a way but it's still not satisfactory from my perspective.
Okay.
Because when you say Allah knows the future you are actually putting Allah within spacetime. He knows the future future. He recorded it, but just like everyone else, he waits for the future to happen.
So, for me, that's wrong, too.
True. Cuz he's not he's beyond time. We have to.
It's like we're projecting our own life onto him. And we have to And it's not.
It's very hard to difficult to explain it to consciously be thinking. I'm bound by time. Allah is not bound by time.
Yeah. So, the future is already there for Allah.
Yeah. It's all simultaneous, right? It's all happening at the same time. Well, it happened, we should say. So, from that perspective, you know, in a humorous way, I say to people, we're already dead.
Okay.
We're already in the grave.
Wow.
Janet and Janam is already filled. But this is from his perspective. That's why people cannot understand because he's be beyond time.
But for us, the future hasn't arrived. We don't know. That is why some people you know they have this jebri mind you know compulsionist mind no matter how much you explain to them they don't understand I remember from previous videos too they come and comment underneath it.
And they say it's wr if it's written in the leimafus you know that's not that cannot be changed they just don't understand this a very important concept.
It's written in the levimafus but we haven't seen No human being, no angels have seen that. So how do you know what is written in there? So how can you say if it's written? No, only Allah knows that. Not us. None of us knows that. So whatever we we do that is written in there. Do you know what I mean? Whatever we do with our own free will that is written in there.
Uh they asked the prophetat wasam the sahab and the companions they said oh messenger of Allah if everything is written should we not struggle you know should we not strive should we not make an effort to do good things he says strive do good things because kadar encompasses that as well that's a beautiful hadith you know and maybe lastly I mentioned this in few places it gives a good idea about Kad destiny.
Uh with Hazu Omar on that trip uh to Damascus when he was the Khalifa with a group of Sahabis uh they camp somewhere they're going to Damascus Sham and this person uh on a horseback rides towards them coming from that direction and he says oh Omar don't don't go to Sham don't go to Damascus there's a plague outbreak there everyone is dying from this disease. Hazar gets the sahhabis together and he says let's do a thing consultation is and 99% of them say let's go back to Medina and Hazar says yes let's go back to Medina and then one sahab I think it was Abu as I remember his name he says oh Omar shame on you you know are you running away from the destiny of Allah he points to thing Damascus.
And uh Omar says I don't think you understood kadar you know he says that's very interesting he goes yes I'm running away from the destiny of Allah to the destiny of Allah he points to Medina. So what Omar means there no matter what choice he made there to go to sham or to go to Medina that would have been written in Himafus so we don't know what's written in there so we cannot say you know Omar had no other choice but to go to Medina no If Omar made the choice to go to Shem, you know, and some pe some of the Sabbis got sick and died, that would have been written in there. See.
So people just don't understand that concept there.
That's true. Yeah.
So, I guess for some people they might thinking, well, that's a lot for me to take in. But.
Our message really is we should be focusing on our willpower, making good decisions, and you know that that's really what's what we have some level of control over.
Final message. Yes.
Very short final message. As believers, we look at the future as free will. We look at the past as destiny.
That is the equation. We look at the future.
As free will, the past as destiny.
Very good. Very powerful food for thought for everyone. Thank you Dr. for another lovely podcast and see you next time. Asalam alaikum.