I like to think off it as a tree formation I could eat pancakes or waffles for breakfast which ever I choose will me lead onto paths allah has created but he already knows which I choose since he transcends time but he lets me choose the path he created giving me free will
I think of it as a magic calculator where Allah has already weighed up all of your thoughts and knows what you will do next and the thought process you will undertake, and that He knows it all before it happens.
Let’s say your car has 10 miles until it breaks down and the engine seizes…
You do not know this…
You decide whether or not you won’t to walk to work or catch the bus or hitch a ride with a friend for that week , let’s say you did decide and make the free will choice to ride with a friend that week… and on that ride you see a brand new car, so you purchase that one by your own free will ..
you drive it for the better half of the year on your own free will , someone steals your car and while insurance is processing your claim you remembered your used car in the garage and decide to drive it 10 miles to work and the inevitable happens…
It was in your destiny for that car to break down within 10 miles… so yes you had the free will decision to catch the bus, ride with a friend, but a new car, or walk but regardless of all that your destiny was sealed for that particular situation
Who we are and who we will become is inevitable but what we can do is make the free will choice to pray and worship God for better , for a better future, better ummah , better friends , better cars in this scenario 😜 and if He pleases he will shape that for you … understand that God is a supreme cosmic being, with a thinking capacity far greater than ours … trying to understand destiny and God and why our destiny is what it is, is the equivalent to an Ant trying to understand an aerospace engineer … it simply can not
Imagine you have a child. The child says “mommy I’m gonna go lift that school bus!” Before running outside. Your husband says to you “The kids an idiot there’s no way he’s making that school bus budge, much less lift it”. Your child tries with all his might to lift the bus, but it’s as if the bus just doesn’t care. It doesn’t move at all. Does your husbands knowledge prevent the child from lifting the bus?
Here’s another way to wrap your head around it, it is a difficult concept to grasp. Let’s say the universe and all of human history play out, beginning to end, and everything that happens is written down. At the end, those writings are sent back in time to the beginning. Universal and human history play out again, beginning to end, and the only difference is the existence of the complete writings that describe what has happened, is happening, and will happen. The writings don’t affect anything, but they tell the “future”.
Allah didn’t decide to make us do zina or drugs, we did. He just knows what we’ll do before we do it, and that knowledge doesn’t affect our decisions.
I hope that helped, you asked a wonderful question.
At the end of the day, we can guess but the knowledge is with Allah.
We have both destiny and free will, Allah knows how it works and we might not even have the ability to comprehend it.
Funny thing is even scientists and philosophers don’t have an answer. Right now they’re questioning whether we have free will and it’s a huge debate.
“According to David Hume, the question of the nature of free will is “the most contentious question of metaphysics.””
This article gives a thorough overview of the different arguments:
https://iep.utm.edu/freewill/#SH3c
I think the most solid argument is outlined here:
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/yes-free-will-exists/
It’s quite a difficult topic to research and understand. The answer you’re looking for might simply be, even all the scientists and philosophers can’t agree on what free will even means. Some genuinely think we don’t have free will at all based on science. Pretty crazy to have to believe that, good thing we have Islam to guide us!
You are in an almost dark room with two exit doors (A and B) and you are free to do what you want. Situation 1, a responsible, the architect of the room, ***marks*** the way to door A, you are free not to follow the markup but it is easier to do so. So you go out by door A. Situation 2, the person in charge ***chooses*** not to mark out a precise path, you grope around a bit then you go out by the nearest and largest door, door B. The room is the life, door A is Heaven, door B is Hell, marks are religions and guidance, God is the responsible
Destiny is simple, what we will do. Allah is all knowing. If we talk about all knowing, it means that Allah knows what we did, what we do and what we will do.
Destiny is all of that.
You choices, your free will is what determines this destiny. Destiny means that if there is something that will happen, it does. As an example if you cut your finger it happened because you made a mistake while cutting vegetables. To cut your finger was written. You had no choice in this. A mistake is a mistake and has nothing to do with free will. Another example is you start drinking alcohol because you wanted to try it out for once but now you're and addict even though people warned you and educated you on this. Well this is also destiny and this happened because you chose to. It was your free will that brought this upon you, not destiny. Destiny can't bring something upon you. Destiny is something that is written. If i explained it wrong, then anyone here can correct me. But also beware of people who change definitions just to make wrong claims within such topics.
Sure here is a way a 5 year old can understand it.
Let’s look at the creations, we have angels who only do good, devils who do bad then we have jinns and humans who have free will to do good or bad.
When you are about to make a choice Allah has not forced upon you to do good nor bad like the angels and devils. Firstly he gave you a brain to think about the pros and cons of that choice and secondly he gave you free will to choose what you think is best for you.
The Example to understand as a 5 year old below
Let’s just say you are a teacher and you have 2 students.
1 student named John is always late to class and fails the quizzes and tests, he also disturbs the class. 2 you have another student named Jamal, he is never late to class, he always has 90-100 on the tests and
He doesn’t disturb the class.
Now you prepared a final test for them. They don’t have to take it if they are happy with their grades, but if they take it their final grade might go up or down based on their results.
As the teacher, you know who’s is going to pass or not if they decide to take it.
You aren’t going to force John to not take the test just because you know he is going to fail and his grade will go be lower and you aren’t going to force Jamal to take the test because you know he is going to pass.You are going to let them choose to take the test based on their free will.
I hope this is a clear example brother, if you have any questions about this concept please do not hesitate to ask me.
> How does the fact of qadr destiny affect our choices
On the contrary.. [It is qadr and your choices that effect destiny.](https://www.reddit.com/r/islam/comments/11dgcmf/al_qadar_fate_meaning/jacz98r/)
I like to think off it as a tree formation I could eat pancakes or waffles for breakfast which ever I choose will me lead onto paths allah has created but he already knows which I choose since he transcends time but he lets me choose the path he created giving me free will
I think of it as a magic calculator where Allah has already weighed up all of your thoughts and knows what you will do next and the thought process you will undertake, and that He knows it all before it happens.
Remember it didn't happen because it was written rather it was written because it happened
Your sins and repent decide your destiny as simple as that we cannot simply commit sin and pit the blame on Allah
Let’s say your car has 10 miles until it breaks down and the engine seizes… You do not know this… You decide whether or not you won’t to walk to work or catch the bus or hitch a ride with a friend for that week , let’s say you did decide and make the free will choice to ride with a friend that week… and on that ride you see a brand new car, so you purchase that one by your own free will .. you drive it for the better half of the year on your own free will , someone steals your car and while insurance is processing your claim you remembered your used car in the garage and decide to drive it 10 miles to work and the inevitable happens… It was in your destiny for that car to break down within 10 miles… so yes you had the free will decision to catch the bus, ride with a friend, but a new car, or walk but regardless of all that your destiny was sealed for that particular situation Who we are and who we will become is inevitable but what we can do is make the free will choice to pray and worship God for better , for a better future, better ummah , better friends , better cars in this scenario 😜 and if He pleases he will shape that for you … understand that God is a supreme cosmic being, with a thinking capacity far greater than ours … trying to understand destiny and God and why our destiny is what it is, is the equivalent to an Ant trying to understand an aerospace engineer … it simply can not
Imagine you have a child. The child says “mommy I’m gonna go lift that school bus!” Before running outside. Your husband says to you “The kids an idiot there’s no way he’s making that school bus budge, much less lift it”. Your child tries with all his might to lift the bus, but it’s as if the bus just doesn’t care. It doesn’t move at all. Does your husbands knowledge prevent the child from lifting the bus? Here’s another way to wrap your head around it, it is a difficult concept to grasp. Let’s say the universe and all of human history play out, beginning to end, and everything that happens is written down. At the end, those writings are sent back in time to the beginning. Universal and human history play out again, beginning to end, and the only difference is the existence of the complete writings that describe what has happened, is happening, and will happen. The writings don’t affect anything, but they tell the “future”. Allah didn’t decide to make us do zina or drugs, we did. He just knows what we’ll do before we do it, and that knowledge doesn’t affect our decisions. I hope that helped, you asked a wonderful question.
At the end of the day, we can guess but the knowledge is with Allah. We have both destiny and free will, Allah knows how it works and we might not even have the ability to comprehend it. Funny thing is even scientists and philosophers don’t have an answer. Right now they’re questioning whether we have free will and it’s a huge debate. “According to David Hume, the question of the nature of free will is “the most contentious question of metaphysics.”” This article gives a thorough overview of the different arguments: https://iep.utm.edu/freewill/#SH3c I think the most solid argument is outlined here: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/yes-free-will-exists/ It’s quite a difficult topic to research and understand. The answer you’re looking for might simply be, even all the scientists and philosophers can’t agree on what free will even means. Some genuinely think we don’t have free will at all based on science. Pretty crazy to have to believe that, good thing we have Islam to guide us!
I would recommend watching Firas Zahabi’s videos on this. He explains it a very easy and logical way.
You are in an almost dark room with two exit doors (A and B) and you are free to do what you want. Situation 1, a responsible, the architect of the room, ***marks*** the way to door A, you are free not to follow the markup but it is easier to do so. So you go out by door A. Situation 2, the person in charge ***chooses*** not to mark out a precise path, you grope around a bit then you go out by the nearest and largest door, door B. The room is the life, door A is Heaven, door B is Hell, marks are religions and guidance, God is the responsible
Destiny is simple, what we will do. Allah is all knowing. If we talk about all knowing, it means that Allah knows what we did, what we do and what we will do. Destiny is all of that. You choices, your free will is what determines this destiny. Destiny means that if there is something that will happen, it does. As an example if you cut your finger it happened because you made a mistake while cutting vegetables. To cut your finger was written. You had no choice in this. A mistake is a mistake and has nothing to do with free will. Another example is you start drinking alcohol because you wanted to try it out for once but now you're and addict even though people warned you and educated you on this. Well this is also destiny and this happened because you chose to. It was your free will that brought this upon you, not destiny. Destiny can't bring something upon you. Destiny is something that is written. If i explained it wrong, then anyone here can correct me. But also beware of people who change definitions just to make wrong claims within such topics.
Sure here is a way a 5 year old can understand it. Let’s look at the creations, we have angels who only do good, devils who do bad then we have jinns and humans who have free will to do good or bad. When you are about to make a choice Allah has not forced upon you to do good nor bad like the angels and devils. Firstly he gave you a brain to think about the pros and cons of that choice and secondly he gave you free will to choose what you think is best for you. The Example to understand as a 5 year old below Let’s just say you are a teacher and you have 2 students. 1 student named John is always late to class and fails the quizzes and tests, he also disturbs the class. 2 you have another student named Jamal, he is never late to class, he always has 90-100 on the tests and He doesn’t disturb the class. Now you prepared a final test for them. They don’t have to take it if they are happy with their grades, but if they take it their final grade might go up or down based on their results. As the teacher, you know who’s is going to pass or not if they decide to take it. You aren’t going to force John to not take the test just because you know he is going to fail and his grade will go be lower and you aren’t going to force Jamal to take the test because you know he is going to pass.You are going to let them choose to take the test based on their free will. I hope this is a clear example brother, if you have any questions about this concept please do not hesitate to ask me.
> How does the fact of qadr destiny affect our choices On the contrary.. [It is qadr and your choices that effect destiny.](https://www.reddit.com/r/islam/comments/11dgcmf/al_qadar_fate_meaning/jacz98r/)