Page 60 - Islam and Karma

ISLAM AND KARMA

does not actually know at that point whether the book is destined to
be completed or not. This would be as ignorant as hearing someone
knock at the door and failing to get up and open it, thinking, "If the
person outside is fated to come in, they will come in anyway”. Allah
alone knows what is fated, we do not.
The truth of the matter is that everything we experience have
been decreed by Allah as part of our destiny. In the following verses of

the Qur’an, Allah tells us that it is He Who is the Doer:
You did not kill them; it was Allah Who killed them; and you did
not throw, when you threw; it was Allah Who threw: so He might
test the believers with this excellent trial from Him. Allah is All-
Hearing, All-Knowing. (Surat al-Anfal: 17)
Allah created both you and what you do. (Surat as-Saffat: 96)
If one pretends not to understand these things as they are ex-
plained in the Qur’an, or if one pretends ignorance in order to

"test"fate and refuses to open the door, or refuse to write the book, he
is still experiencing something he was fated to live through. By the
same token, if we fail to take the medicine we need to take when we
are ill, saying to ourselves, "If I am fated to recover, I will recover”, and
thus neglect our health, it is our destiny to act in this unintelligent way.
Similarly, if we deny the existence of fate, it is because it is part of our
fate to do so.
On the other hand, anyone who is intelligent and conscientious
will know that what they are experiencing is part of Allah's test for

them, and that they are responsible for their actions even though the
efforts they are making and the results they will obtain have already
taken place and are already complete with Allah. In this connection
the Qur’an gives the example of Ya’qub's advice to his sons:
He said, "My sons! You must not enter through a single gate. Go in
through different gates. But I cannot save you from Allah at all, for

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