WHO IS IN CONTROL?
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We exist in one future where Iblis did not sjd. Everything on Earth is between Iblis, yourself and God. God spoke to Al-Satan and gave permission to seduce humanity if they can, but for those who believe this is not an issue. So always, God is in complete command. You yourself are also in complete command; this command is within your own self and the ability to control for yourself and other selves matters - to accept God, or to reject (hypocrisy/shirk).
So you have three options, really which are two
- To go forward and accept truth
- To turn back and deny truth
The first option is infinitely expansive and will require you to shed your ego - the idea that you have been willing your whole life as opposed to the will of everyone and everything and ultimately Allah.
The second option is a non-option which generates only misery and transient illusion of pleasure. If a person is a believer then choosing this option is hypocrisy; if a person does not believe then this option is shirk, the association of partners in authority/essence/sovereignty with the Supreme.All of this on Earth exists as a trial bubble. Good and bad things happen to us, and they are all written down long before we are on Earth. So any number of ways we could proceed through life but all of the possible storylines are already in the book before we are sprung forth. We are choosing which path through the book to take, which universe to choose to be our own.
There are infinitely many universes going on but only one heavens-and-earth. Above Earth (planets, rocks, formed objects) is heaven (space, air, formless emptiness). Within heaven, there are infinitely many possible ways for Earth to move, or to rotate an object for instance. So I could turn left, or I could turn right, or face upward, or downward, but all of my possible selves are already contained within the record.
In such a sense we have infinite free will, creativity, power, potential, but all of this is fundamentally constrained by the treaty between Allah and Iblis until the time of resurrection. Our decision is either to turn to God or turn away, there is nothing more. All things happen through the interface of this simply (Y,N) question/decision, all choice is through that. You choose God, then some aspects are restricted and you eventually come to understand why. If you choose Al-Satan, to oppose God, then the universe appears to be fully open, you can go anywhere, do anything, nothing matters, no consequence. But soon from that you find the consequence and nothing but misery ultimately and it all comes to pass and one is left with nothing of worth or significance.
But choosing God, we gain access to the infinite variety of nature and choice of flowing in oneness, unison and synchronicity through the universe, an endless sustainable cycle of goodness that perpetually springs forth. So choose God, again and again, and you will not have to worry about who is in control. You are in control, allow your highest You to shine through yourself.
All the aspects of ourselves or capabilities you would expect to have in Paradise, we have them here if you look deep enough within. The body you inhabit now is very much like the body you inhabit in paradise but this body here is simply bound to decay. Its nervous system has all the capabilities of a Paradise being.
Anchor them onto Earth and we move closer and closer to the Paradise realm.This is what Iblis & co try to trick us with. They deceive man into thinking God does not exist or Godness is not God and there is no goodness, then when man is reduced to his lowest form, Al-Satan disassociates from any responsibility. We are here on Earth to express our deepest beauty, power, grace, charm, intellectual ability, empathy, harmony. These are the qualities that raise man into the truest Home, the Home where man is free to shine everything within to the quality that is expected of the 15 billion years of work of the Supreme.
peace
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Salam,
Just my 2 cents. If anybody had ever read 'game book' novels popular in the 90's where you choose what decision the character would take and for each decision is designated pages you should flip to and with different decisions you will have different ending?
Well... Our lives is to me, sort of like that. Each moments of our lives we are presented with choices, and with each choices we will have different results. Although we want certain results and make our decisions based on what we want of the results, the results are not in our control. The results has already been written down (pre-ordained?). If we choose this we will get that, etc etc... The the 'control' given to us is to make choices. The results are completely in His hands.
Peace.
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Peace,
Quite a good parable there burnian.
God bless you
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let's put down some facts. nothing happen to you except what ALLAH wills
every deed small or great is written before it comes into being.... whoa... that means my next sentence is....
...
..
.What??!?!?!??!!?
giveuphail ALLAH Akbar I sumbit to the lord of worlds.
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let's put down some facts. nothing happen to you except what ALLAH wills
every deed small or great is written before it comes into being.It's a logical implication of the statement.
Given time and space itself is a 'creation'.Among the 'proponent' of such view is Albert Einstein, in which he said
"I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it. God does not play dice with the universe. Everything is determined, the beginning as well as the end, by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune, intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."
-- A. EinsteinA video which discussed this issue.
ARE WE REAL?
http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRzPM3FgF9I -
Salam,
Just my 2 cents. If anybody had ever read 'game book' novels popular in the 90's where you choose what decision the character would take and for each decision is designated pages you should flip to and with different decisions you will have different ending?
Well... Our lives is to me, sort of like that. Each moments of our lives we are presented with choices, and with each choices we will have different results. Although we want certain results and make our decisions based on what we want of the results, the results are not in our control. The results has already been written down (pre-ordained?). If we choose this we will get that, etc etc... The the 'control' given to us is to make choices. The results are completely in His hands.
Peace.
Salamun Alaikum
A brilliant parable it is. I'd only add to it that - even the choices that we are going to make are known to Allah. But that does not absolve us in any way from the responsibility of making those choices.
Have someone played the below game with you?
- Think of a number - any number between 1-10.
- multiply by 3.
- add 6
- multiply by 3
- subtract 9
- add the digits of your resulting number.
- subtract 5
- think of the English letter that represents the number (A for 1, B for 2, C for 3 etc.)
- Think of the name of a country beginning with your letter.
- Take the second letter of the name of the country.
- Think of an animal that begins with the letter.
...
...
......
...
...There are no elephants in Denmark.
For more than 90% people this works. If this game worked for you - that is because the one who came up with the game predicted the choices that you would make. But just because he predicted it right does not mean that you did not make those choices.
May Allah guide us all to the straight route.
Best regards,
Arman -
Yes, those examples are very interesting, clear. I do not know whether that is the way it works, but it does show that if what one needs is an example or illustratio of how it can work, there you have it. You cannot complain that there is no explanation.
As fr as I am concerned, I feel that in these questions we get into divine ground and that we are no match for that. I acknowledge that I am not match for that, but that I am match for what I have at hand, that is, to deal with what I can deal or attempt to deal. I do not have to solve "God's problems". I have to solve mine. And I also think, getting a hint from astrology, that all people are different. Some people have more choice than others. Some people seem to be marked by fatality. But that is a matter of choices which is not the same as free will as somebody here has already commented. Even without choices we are free to protest or to submit, or to submit protesting...
Still God knows and the knowledge that God knows whould give us some peace, if we deeply believe, should give us total peace. In sha Allah, I wish that for me and for everybody in creation.
Salaam
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Peace,
We are fully responsible for our deeds. The passivist view is dangerous because they may even forget part of the decree because it explicitly tells to do good things to establish justice and harmony. Not only sit around with a "righteous smile" and dingling dangling their bodies several times per day or spend hours in meditation.
God knows what is going to happen to all of us, but we yet have an active role in a kind of simulator illusion.
God bless you
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We are fully responsible for our deeds. The passivist view is dangerous because they may even forget part of the decree because it explicitly tells to do good things to establish justice and harmony. Not only sit around with a "righteous smile" and dingling dangling their bodies several times per day or spend hours in meditation.
Excuse me, brother...
Bold What is that mean?? ???
Peace.
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Peace,
Sorry it was perhaps inappropriate to mock someone for their rites. But I meant to sit around in prayer all day while your deeds are few.
God bless you
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Peace,
Read the Qurans explanation of predestination here
Anything that happens on earth, or to you, has already been recorded, even before the creation.
This is easy for GOD to do.Moses said to him, "Can I follow you, that you may teach me some of the knowledge and the guidance bestowed upon you?"
He said, "You cannot stand to be with me.
"How can you stand that which you do not comprehend?"
?Every affliction that falls on the earth or yourselves, already exists in a Book before it is brought into being by us.
No doubt that is easy for Allah to accomplish?. (Surah al-Hadid, 5722)He said, "You will find me, GOD willing, patient. I will not disobey any command you give me."
He said, "If you follow me, then you shall not ask me about anything, unless I choose to tell you
about it."So they went. When they boarded a ship, he bore a hole in it. He said, "Did you bore a hole in it to
drown its people? You have committed something terrible."He said, "Did I not say that you cannot stand to be with me?"
He said, "I am sorry. Do not punish me for my forgetfulness; do not be too harsh with me."
So they went. When they met a young boy, he killed him. He said, "Why did you kill such an innocent
soul, who did not kill another soul? You have committed something horrendous."He said, "Did I not tell you that you cannot stand to be with me?"
He said, "If I ask you about anything else, then do not keep me with you. You have seen enough
apologies from me."So they went. When they reached a certain community, they asked the people for food, but they
refused to host them. Soon, they found a wall about to collapse, and he fixed it. He said, "You could have
demanded a wage for that!"There is a Good Reason for Everything
He said, "Now we have to part company. But I will explain to you everything you could not stand.
"As for the ship, it belonged to poor fishermen, and I wanted to render it defective. There was a king
coming after them, who was confiscating every ship, forcibly."As for the boy, his parents were good believers, and we saw that he was going to burden them with
his transgression and disbelief.*"We willed that your Lord substitute in his place another son; one who is better in righteousness and kindness.
"As for the wall, it belonged to two orphan boys in the city. Under it, there was a treasure that belonged
to them. Because their father was a righteous man, your Lord wanted them to grow up and attain full strength,
then extract their treasure. Such is mercy from your Lord. I did none of that of my own volition. This is the
explanation of the things you could not stand."Part of 3/154
........................... Say Had you remained in your houses, those for whom slaughter was ordained would certainly
have gone forth to the places where they would be slain...................................................................God bless
peace
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I'm just confused please help, I always thought we controlled our lives our death and our happiness and how we lived will determine our fate whether we go to hell or heaven but i also thanked God for guiding me when i needed him. so how does this work our we in control or not
God controls everything, but we have to "make evident" to God through our obedience to the commands in the Quran, that it is worth for God to show us the "straight path", ie. the path that . . .
there will be
(1) no fear concerning them <- what else do people want ?
(2) nor will they grieve
10.62not the path that Allah. . .
will progressively lead them
from where they do not know
7.182Because. . .
They deceive Allah and those who believe
but they deceive not except themselves
and perceive not.
2.9Therefore , "control over our life" is connected to the understanding and implementation of "sincerity" to Allah; based on the "evidence" of our "understanding of the Quran" and "our action" to comply with our understanding , and not what we "say" but "do not do".
Great is hatred in the sight of Allah
that you say what you do not do <- ie. they are the Deceivers
61.3These people think to deceive Allah and those who believe, but they deceive not except themselves.
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Salamun Alaikum
On this context, the below excerpt is worth pondering over
The one who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is a wise person. Such a person is a saint and has accomplished everything. To see inaction in action and vice versa is to understand that the Lord does all the work indirectly through His power by using us. He is the inactive actor. We are actively inactive, because we cannot do anything without the flow of His power. Therefore, we are not the doer, just an instrument in His hands. A person, whose desires have become selfless by being roasted in the fire of self-knowledge, is called a sage by the wise. The one who has abandoned selfish attachment to the fruits of work, and remains ever content and dependent on no one but God, such a person --- though engaged in activity --- does nothing at all, and incurs no reaction from actions, good or bad. The one who is free from desires, whose mind and senses are under control, and who has renounced all proprietorship, does not incur sin --- the reaction from actions --- by doing bodily action. Content with whatever gain comes naturally by His will, unaffected by pairs of opposites, free from envy, calm in success and failure; though engaged in work, such an active-saint is not bound by action. The one who is free from attachment, whose mind is fixed in self-knowledge, who does work as a service to the Lord, all action bonds of such a philanthropic person dissolves away. God, the eternal Being, shall be realized by the one who considers everything as a manifestation or an act of God.
Any guess what is the source of the above?
May Allah guide us all to the straight route.
Regards,
Arman -
The one who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is a wise person. Such a person is a saint and has accomplished everything. To see inaction in action and vice versa is to understand that the Lord does all the work indirectly through His power by using us. He is the inactive actor. We are actively inactive, because we cannot do anything without the flow of His power. Therefore, we are not the doer, just an instrument in His hands. A person, whose desires have become selfless by being roasted in the fire of self-knowledge, is called a sage by the wise. The one who has abandoned selfish attachment to the fruits of work, and remains ever content and dependent on no one but God, such a person --- though engaged in activity --- does nothing at all, and incurs no reaction from actions, good or bad. The one who is free from desires, whose mind and senses are under control, and who has renounced all proprietorship, does not incur sin --- the reaction from actions --- by doing bodily action. Content with whatever gain comes naturally by His will, unaffected by pairs of opposites, free from envy, calm in success and failure; though engaged in work, such an active-saint is not bound by action. The one who is free from attachment, whose mind is fixed in self-knowledge, who does work as a service to the Lord, all action bonds of such a philanthropic person dissolves away. God, the eternal Being, shall be realized by the one who considers everything as a manifestation or an act of God.
Any guess what is the source of the above?
A mixture of
- Tao The Ching by Lao Tse
- Bhagavad Ghita
- Siddharta's teaching
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Read the Qurans explanation of predestination here
Anything that happens on earth, or to you, has already been recorded, even before the creation.
This is easy for GOD to do.Yes, actually that verse from Quran which initially shape my opinion on predeterministic world.
I tried not to quote that verse on this forum just because I don't want people here to believe on it merely because
"it's on the Quran, thus it's must be true".And also to show "There are truth outside the Quran and God's enlightenment reached those who never read the Quran".
Einstein reached the same conclusion by 'observing the universe'.
And so does Lao Tse, Siddhartha, Krishna, Jesus, Moses (as told in the Quran), Unnamed Moses's friend on the Quran who teached Moses about the 'ultimate wisdom' and millions of others. They reached the same conclusion through 'their own unique ways'.Salam / Peace
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Peace,
5722 No misfortune can happen on the earth, or in yourselves, except already decreed, before We bring it about. This is easy for God to do.
The passage invites to much conjecture about that your actions do not matter at all and it invites to passivity. Of course God already knows everything or God would not be perfect. God plans something an nothing can prevent it. But actions matter and it could be that God has made like in those computer games where you get alternative endings depending on what choice you make.
God bless you
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Yes, actually that verse from Quran which initially shape my opinion on predeterministic world.
Peace Jafar,
If one was to observe the Quran they would notice that there are "unseen" realities that we
are not a part of, without being too technical, time is the trickster that must be understood. A simple
example would be, if you arrived at a location a day ahead of me you would know what was there before I
who arrived later. This is a complicated subject, but if we put belief first the question becomes
"How does God accomplish/do such things" conversely Doubt leaves us with "that is not possible even if God
says so"P.S. The prophet Moses teacher was part of a reality that Moses did not share i.e., the unseen. 18/66-82
God bless
peace
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The passage invites to much conjecture about that your actions do not matter at all and it invites to passivity.
Action performed by anyone or anything does matter, I don't see anything that state otherwise.
Perhaps.... it's actually your own perception that created such conjecture within you.
But actions matter and it could be that God has made like in those computer games where you get alternative endings depending on what choice you make.
No I don't think so.. as all action performed by anyone or anything is known.
The metaphor of "computer games" is not correct for this example because computer games was written by human to be played by other human. The human programmer created an AI (Artificial Intelligence) which action or algorithm is 100% known to him while the action of the human player is unknown to him. Thus there's still a missing information from the perspective of the human programmer.
Unless the computer games are being played entirely by the programmer's AI.
The programmer shall know it all.Explaining in more details
Example of such case might be, a football game match where both team are being played by the computer.
The programmer can easily know the end result score of such match given he's also being supplied by the time on when does such match started.
Time is important in computer game as that's the seed for computer to generate "pseudo-random" number.Based on that 'random' number, the AI algorithm shall compute different result which resulted in different action performed by the AI "sprites" (in this case the AI controlled football's player) thus avoiding the feeling of 'predictability' if the games is being played by the human player.
And if you play out the computer vs computer match, it will yield different result every time.
But not if it's being played at the same time.As you can see, even in computer world, there's no such thing as 'true random'..
Everything in this universe is already known by it's 'programmer'.
Salam / Peace
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Peace Jafar,
You surely know what I mean with the game allegory. Sure everything is known to God even if given alternatives. But we are faced with similar choices. I only mentioned this to have a reasonable allegory. I did not ask you to delve that deeply into how programming works and algorithms of randomness.
What I wanted to convey was, no matter already predetermined by God, is that we must be aware that every little choice that we make does play a role because this is how we are made to perceive things. We are part of a test and if there were no meaningful alternatives then it would be redundant, do you not think so? The story would not get in motion without a purpose or creation would be redundant if you see what I mean.
God bless you
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let's put down some facts. nothing happen to you except what ALLAH wills
every deed small or great is written before it comes into being.... whoa... that means my next sentence is....
...
..
.What??!?!?!??!!?
giveuphail ALLAH Akbar I sumbit to the lord of worlds.
Salaam,
I do not agree with your conclusion. nope
Salaam,
Bender