Page 199 - Allah is Known through Reason

Theory of General Relativity leads to this conclusion. According to Barnett,
the universe can be "encompassed in its entire majesty only by a cos-
mic intellect". 47 The will that Barnett calls "the cosmic intellect" is the
wisdom and knowledge of Allah, Who prevails over the entire uni-
verse. Just as we can easily see a ruler's beginning, middle, and end, and
all the units in between as a whole, Allah knows the time we are subject
to as if it were a single moment right from its beginning to its end. People,
however, experience incidents only when their time comes and they wit-
ness the destiny Allah has created for them.
It is also important to draw attention to the shallowness of the distort-
ed understanding of destiny prevalent in our society. This distorted belief
of fate is a superstition that Allah has determined a "destiny" for every man
but that these destinies can sometimes be changed by people. For instance,
people make superficial statements about a patient who returns from
death's door such as "he defeated his destiny". No-one is able to change
his destiny. The person who returned from death's door, didn't die pre-
cisely because he was destined not to die at that time. It is, ironically, the
destiny of those people who deceive themselves by saying "I defeated my
destiny" that they should say so and maintain such a mindset.
Destiny is the eternal knowledge of Allah and for Allah, Who knows
time like a single moment and Who prevails over the whole of time and
space; everything is determined and finished in destiny. We also under-
stand from what He relates in the Qur'an that time is one for Allah: some
incidents that appear to us to happen in the future are related in the Qur'an
in such a way as if they had already taken place long before. For instance,
the verses that describe the accounts that people must give to Allah in the
hereafter are related as events which occurred long ago:

And the trumpet is blown, and all who are in the heavens and all who are
in the earth swoon away, save him whom Allah wills. Then it is blown a
second time, and behold them standing waiting! And the earth shone with
the light of her Lord, and the Book is set up, and the prophets and the wit-
nesses are brought, and it is judged between them with truth, and they are
not wronged… And those who disbelieve are driven unto hell in troops…:
And those who feared their Lord are driven unto Paradise in troops" (Surat
az-Zumar: 68-73)

Relativity of Time and the Reality of Fate 199