Dua can Change Destiny

It's a fundamental part of our religion to believe in fate and pre-destiny. This can be a good thing, because when we get into fender benders with our parents cars we can say "It's not my fault, it was the will of Allah! It was going to happen anyway!" but it can be a bad thing because it can leave us feeling helpless. 

Someone very close to me was telling me though, that dua (supplication) is the only thing that can actually alter destiny. A few days later, I got my daily hadith email (courtesy of Adaptive Solutions: http://dailyhadith.adaptivesolutionsinc.com/) which actually discussed this topic, and it did so in the clearest way possible:

"Some people wonder what the use may be of making Duas. They say that since everything is preordained, and the good and bad written in one’s Taqdeer (Qismet/preordainment) will come to one anyway, why make Dua? But Taqdeer should be understood as a vault, a very big safe deposit box. In that vault is one’s Paradise and Hell, good and bad. When we make Dua we ask for the good things in the vault to be given to us.

Imaam Ibn al-Qayyim said to invoke Taqdeer to counter Taqdeer. Thus, if you have an accident, then ask Allah for recovery from it. Since Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has kept every good thing in store for us, He gets angry if we don’t ask Him for any of those good things. To not ask Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) for things is to be ungrateful towards Him.

We can understand this from our own experience: Suppose you gather together all the things your children would love to have. Then you ask your children if they would like to receive these wonderful treats you got for them. Some of your children run to you happily saying “Yes, please!” and some of your children keep sitting indifferently saying “Well, if you got them for us, you’ll give them to us anyway.” Which attitude of your children would you be more pleased with?

Ask for the good that Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) has deposited in the vault for you, and ask Him to keep the bad in it away from you."

I'm the kind of guy that needs some more hadith to back a grand idea like this up though, so a quick google search took me to AlQuranClasses.com. This appears to be very neat and tidy, Muslimah run website that seems worth checking out, but they had an article similar to this one, but they've got references. (Usually I go to searchtruth.com, but their search wasn't yielding any results, so these hadith may not be in those books.) 

Anyway, their article can be found at:

http://www.alquranclasses.com/?p=1005

and the supporting hadith they have are:

The Prophet (Peace be upon Him) said: “Nothing can change the Divine decree except Dua.”(Narrated by Ahmad, 5/677; Ibn Maajah, 90; al-Tirmidhi, 139. Classed as hasan by al-Albaani in Saheeh al-Jaami’, 76687. See also al-Saheehah, 145)

It was narrated from Ibn ‘Umar (may Allaah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) said: “Du’aa’ may be of benefit with regard to what has already happened or what has not yet happened, so adhere to Du’aa’, O slaves of Allaah.” Narrated by al-Tirmidhi (3548)

The Prophet (Peace be upon Him) said: “No precaution can protect against the decree of Allaah. Du’aa’ is beneficial with regard to what has been decreed and what has not been decreed. The du’aa’ meets the calamity that has been decreed and wrestles with it, until the Day of Resurrection.” (Narrated by al-Tabaraani, 2/800 (33). Al-Albaani said in Saheeh al-Jaami’, 7739, (it is) hasan).

As a bit of a disclaimer, you can't change destiny in the sense of going against God's will. At the end of the day, something is going to happen to you, and it'll be what God has written, dua is just a request for timeline re-evaluation, and to have what WAS written changed to something else. 

So, there you are! Keep calm and make dua! :)

Fate and Predestiny

Probably the single most confusing concept in Islam is that of fate and predestiny. Muslims frequently hear and read that our lives, and everything, even where we end up after we die is predetermined. This just baffles the heck out of most of us though because if that's the case, then where is justice? Why bother doing good deeds at all? Why bother doing anything?

When I was in the middle east I was talking with a cousin of mine and he was telling me a story about how one of his professors used the concept of dimensions to explain the concept of God. Expanding upon this in my head, I think I finally managed to explain all this fate and predestiny stuff, so here goes. 

DISCLAIMER

THE FOLLOWING IS WHAT I USE TO CONTENT MYSELF. IT MAY BE COMPLETELY WRONG AND IS A RESULT OF MY OWN THINKING.

The religious texts say that everything we do, etc is fate. The way I see it is that, yes it is fate, but it does not control us, we are not forced to follow it but we do. If you imagine our lives as a film, God can scroll through the film. He knows every part, the beginning, middle and end. It's part of His "All-Knowing"-ness. So when it's said "What is written", it's like God went through our film and simply wrote out everything we are going to do. The key point is that the film came first (so to speak): we decide our actions and decisions but God already knows them. It's like a friend who's already watched a movie telling you what's going to happen. He knows how the movie ends, and what happens to the main character, but that doesn't actually affect the main characters actions. 

Now, to explain predestiny. As I imagine it, we are on game boards, or at the centre of a maze constantly moving towards the edge. The walls of the maze are, for lack of a better word, opportunities and events. These choices and opportunities are built into the game board or maze and are predetermined: they are "factory made". It is our free will that allows us to choose which opportunities we take and how we respond to events. Some people's mazes will be simple, with few difficult events and opportunities, while other's will be harder, but everyone has the ability to choose their own paths. At the end of the maze, the edges of the board is death and beyond that half the board is surrounded by Paradise, while the other by Hell. 

So, to summarize my understanding/explanation. We have free will, but a God-made maze. We have to make the right choices at the events and opportunities God built into our mazes. God, being Master of Time and All-Knowing, knows what path and decisions and actions we will take and make, and has written it down, but this does not control us, it's simply an outline of what we are going to do anyway. 

I hope that explanation helps and isn't totally blasphemous.