Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Misconceptions about Qadar

Many Muslims believe that what they are going to do is caused by what has already been written in Al-Lauhulmahfudz - they confuse 'causation' with 'association'. In truth what we have is association, not causation. What we do is not caused by what is written by Allah. Allah with His ultimate knowledge knew what we are going to do. He could easily have put the good-doers into Jannah and the evil-doers into the Hellfire. But Allah is Adil (Just) so He created us in this life as to test us which way to go. What we are going to do will match what has already been written but it's not a matter of causation - what we do is out of our own willingness and ability and we do have full responsibility on whatever choice we make.
Looking at guidance and misguidance, guidance (hidayah) is a gift (rahmah) from Allah. It is Allah who created us and gave us the mind so we can distinguish between right and wrong to a certain capacity. It is Allah who equipped us with fitrah to like the truth and good and to dislike the wrong and evil It is Allah who gave us the ability and power to do things and it is Allah who sent the Messenger with the Message to guide us in things, which are beyond the reach of our conception. So when it comes to guidance it is a bounty from Allah.
But when it comes to misguidance, it has to do with us. When we do bad deeds, it is from our own willingness and ability.
Those who turn away from guidance do so because they want to turn away, i.e. they choose not to be guided. They have been misguided because they are arrogant - they refuse to listen.
And so when they swerved from the right way, Allah let their hearts swerve from the truth.[Surah As-Saff (61): ayat 5]
Nevertheless there are people who have not received the Message of Islam/guidance at all or the Message has not reached them in the clearest form, i.e. it is incomplete or distorted. These people are called Ahlul Fatrah and will be excused and not be punished, even though there are misguided.

Controlling The Tongue

Among Allah's blessings upon man is that He made him a thoughtful and sane being and created a tongue for him... The Messenger of Allah [s] says: "Blessed is the man who speaks good and is triumphant; or keeps silent in the face of evil and is secure".[11] Among Allah's blessings upon man is that He made him a thoughtful and sane being and created a tongue for him. He made him able to utter sounds and clarify what he wants through the words which he speaks. He has only to speak to let people know what he wants.
Thus, we should thank Allah for the blessings which He bestowed upon us. We should use our speech in useful ways; not to speak but goodness. For example, if we are in a meeting or a gathering and want to speak with people, or any discussion comes up then we should first think what we want to say and choose which words to use. If we can offer useful counsel to people or offer advice, we should speak in such a way to make others want to listen.
Hence your words will be acceptable to Allah and the people because your speech is beneficial in guiding towards goodness or reconciling people, or teaching useful knowledge, and will increase the love of people to each other.
If we say a word of goodness we will get Allah's reward and the love and respect of the people and so we will be triumphant. As our glorious Prophet Muhammad [s] says: If man is not able to say something useful, he should keep silent from bad words and his silence will keep him far from Allah's wrath and from the harm which might befall him as a result of saying bad words. Whoever does evil deeds to people, people will surely confront him with evil too.
And certainly, if you speak bad words it may cause you problems and harm and make you regret and wish you had kept silent and had not spoken.
Consequently, our Holy Prophet Muhammad [s] educates us with good manners saying: Either you speak a useful and good word, or be silent which is better for you than speaking evil words.
In Summary Among the best characteristics of a Muslim is to speak only the words of goodness and reconciliation.It is better to remain silent if you cannot speak the word of goodness.Whoever does not keep a check on his tongue will regret it.For those who do good is good (reward) and even more than that.