Question: In the hadith narrated by Abdullah (ra), Allah's Messenger (s.a.s.) the true and truly inspired said: "(As regards your creation), everyone of you is collected in the womb for the first forty days, then he becomes a clot for another forty days, and then of piece of flesh for another forty days. Then Allah sends an angel to write four words: he writes his deeds, time of his death, means of his livelihood and whether he will be wretched or blessed (in the hereafter). Then the soul is breathed into his body. So a man may be doing deeds characteristic of the people of the (hell) fire, so much so that there is only the distance of a cubit between him and it and then what has been written (by the angel) surpasses; and so he starts doing deeds characteristic of the people of paradise and enters paradise. Similarly, a person may do deeds characteristic of the people of paradise so much so that there is only the distance of a cubit between him and it and then what has been written (by the angel) surpasses, and he starts doing deeds of the people of the (hell) fire and enters the (hell) fire." (Sahih Bukhari, Vol 4, Hadith #549)

Question: According to the above hadith what ever a person is engaged in, it is already destined for him. For example:

(i) A young lady grows up in a Muslim home and then in the teenage years after much talking to etc., ends up in a relationship with a kuffar who takes shahada after the relationship has started. Then this means that this was already destined to take place in her life and no change could be made because already her deeds etc., were written from in the womb. Is this correct understanding?

(ii) In another scenario a very religious, pious person who is always involved in dawah, making the prayers at the masjid, only good actions, gets involved in an accident is being told to recite shahada but can only sing a worldly song and then dies. It is already destined that this would be the demise of that person also. Is this correct understanding?

If all these things are already destined, what can we really do to change destiny that has already been written from the wombs?

Answer: The decree of Allah is based upon Allah's perfect knowledge of what He knows that a person would do in his entire life. From among the things that normally take place in the life of a human being, there are those matters that are fixed by Allah and a man has no choice in it. For example, the birth of man, the amount of years he lives, the amount of sustenance he gets, the children he has, the time of his death, the place of his death, etc. etc. are some of the matters that no one but Allah has a control of.

Besides these, man is given a limited freedom and choice in the other matters of his life. For example, he chooses to believe or disbelieve. He chooses to do good or bad. He chooses to marry or commit fornication. He chooses to follow his religion or go against it.

In all these things, a man is given a choice. If he does that which is good, he will be rewarded and blessed and if he adopts that which is bad, he will be punished and shall be made to suffer. Based upon the freedom which has been given to man in these areas, we see that a man chooses to do that which is good and he also takes that which is bad.

Whatever choice he makes in his life, this is already known to Allah and as such based upon His perfect and complete knowledge of man and his actions, He Has already written that a man would do such and such. The writing of the actions of a man does not mean that something has already been written for a man and hence he has no choice except to do it, instead, it means that from the time Allah Has created a soul, He knows every single thing about it. And based upon this complete and perfect knowledge, He Has ordered the angels to record what He knows that a particular person would do. His knowledge is so perfect that man's actions fall within that which Allah has written that he would do. This is what is meant by the statement "what is written surpasses him".

In the case of the young lady, Allah did not ask her to do what she did, nor did He force her to do it. Instead, it was her choice which she made and hence, will be taken to task for her actions. With respect to this being already written, it means that Allah already knew, from the time he created this girl, that at this age she would fall into this sin, and based upon what he knew of her, it was written. The same is the understanding of the second case.

Based upon this explanation, it becomes clear that it is essential for us to do good actions and to choose the correct path. As mentioned before, there are certain matters about which we have no control, and there are also other matters about which we are given a choice. Allah Has not and does not force us to do anything, however, His knowledge is so perfect and complete that He Has the knowledge of what we do even before we do it and this is what He Has written about us.


And Allah knows best.
Mufti Waseem Khan