“Had your Lord pleased, all the people of the earth would have believed in Him. Would you then force faith upon men?” (10, 99) Compulsion, it is plain, is not part of Divine Law. Fate and predestination should not be conceived as a forcing of people to what is against their natures; on the contrary, Allaah destines each, human being to a fate which corresponds to his intentions - He wills man to what man himself really wills, and He desires for man what man himself desires. There is no duality here. Allaah ‘ preordination ’ is identical to the creature's freedom of choice because Allaah ‘ destines ’ every man according to his own desires and intentions : “Whoever seeks the harvest of the world to come, to him We will give in great abundance; and whoever desires the harvest of this world, a share of it shall be hisO” (42, 10) “As for those who follow the right path, Allaah will increase their guidance. ” (47, 17) “ If Allaah finds goodness in your hearts, He will give you that which is better O” (8, 70) “ There is a sickness in their hearts which Allaah has increased.” (2, 10) Allaah ‘ ordains ’ according to the intentions and heart of man: if these are evil, man will come to evil; if good, good will be his fate. There is no duality or opposition; predestination is freedom of choice as Allaah ‘ predestines ’ us to what we choose with our hearts and intentions. There is no injustice, compulsion, or duress in this regard and there is no subjection to what is against our natures : “ For him that gives in charity and guards himself against evil and believes in goodness, we shall ease the path of salvation; but for him that gives not and thinks himself self-sufficient and disbelieves in goodness, We shall ease the path to destruction.” (92, 5-10) An easy example is that of a wayfarer who comes to a crossroad – the path to the right leading to destination A and the other to destination B. If he chooses the right path, his ‘ destiny ’ will inevitably be point A and if he chooses the left path his ‘ destiny ’ will inevitably be point B. Similarly if a person chooses the path of righteousness his destiny will be heaven, and if he chooses the path of evil his destiny will be hell. Allaah destines each, human being to a fate which corresponds to his intentions and choices. If you choose to avoid wrongdoing, deviance and rebellion, you come under the will, or ‘ destiny ’, of guidance. But if you choose the way of rejection and wrongdoing, you fall under His will, or ‘destiny ’, that there be no guidance for you. So in neither of these situations are you outside Allaah’s will, for nothing can happen to you except what He wills for you. Seen from this perspective we discover yet another facet of this intriguing subject, that being, that we cannot escape Allaah’s will or law, no matter which path we may choose. 34
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