1-)
Do the disabled have any fault since they are created so?
Allah is the possessor of the property. He (SWT) disposes of His property as He wishes. No one can object to His actions and interfere in His creation. Allah (SWT) creates the cells of man, arranges the place of his organs, and bestows upon him a humane entity. Man has not given anything to Allah, Who has given all these bounties; so he cannot claim any rights from Allah.
If man had given something to Allah (SWT) in return for what has been given to him, he would have had a right to object by saying, “Give me two eyes, not one!”, “give me two hands, not one!” or “Why did you not give me two feet but only one?”Injustice arises from an unreturned right. What right does man have in Allah (SWT) so that he might be inflicted injustice because it has not been satisfied?
Sometimes Allah Almighty gives a person many things in the hereafter in return for removing his foot. By removing his foot, He (SWT) makes His servant feel his impotence and weakness. If He lets the feelings of His servant develop towards him, He will have given many things to him by removing something very small from him. It means this is actually, though not apparently, the grace of Allah (SWT) to His servant.
In the same way, Allah Almighty sends a person to Paradise when he is martyred for the sake of Him...A person becomes a martyr in the battlefield whereby he rises to a position, which godly people long for. Upon seeing him, others wish Allah Almighty had made it possible for them to be martyrs. Such a person loses nothing even if he is smashed into pieces for the thing he receives is far greater than his apparent loss.
Even if some people consider this situation inappropriate, having vexation, resentment and with a hostile attitude towards Allah (SWT), these kinds of defects have attracted the affection of Allah (SWT). The objections of some rebellious and ungrateful people in this respect are unfair and improper.
2-)
Can we say that Allah knew that unbelievers will live in unbelief and that hence He created them in non-Muslim countries?
We cannot deduce that Allah created unbelievers from unbelieving parents orin non-Muslim countries since He knew with His pre-eternal knowledge that they would be unbelievers. As a matter of fact, if they have not heard about Islam or if they have heard about it in a wrong way, they will not be held responsible.
Allah calls everybody to account according to the conditions and the environment they live in.The responsibility of a person who was born in a Muslim country will not be the same as the responsibility of a person who was born in a non-Muslim country.
This fact should not be ignored while analyzing the issues related to qadar (predestination) and justice. Everybody has different life conditions, different problems as an individual, in their families and with their relatives, different financial problems, and finally a different world peculiar to them based on the social structure of the country they live in.
The results of this divine division and sharing, whose wisdom we cannot know truly but which we do not doubt to be fair, will be shown on the Day of Judgment; as it is stated in the chapter of az-Zilzal,man will be called to account for an atom´s weight of good, and an atom´s weight of evil there.
3-)
Does “Chance” have the chance to exist? What is the effect of Qadar (fate) in games of chance?
Chance is the supernatural powerthat is believed to have arranged coincidences and good or bad states/situations for people. One of the following might be meant with the word chance: Luck, possibility, coincidence. (Wikipedia)
According to this definition, if chance is something that is believed to be created by any power other than Allah, it is clear shirk (polytheism) and unbelief.
If it is used in the sense of coincidence, it is a wrong thought and it is not unbelief – if it originates from heedlessness.
- In fact, chance is neither luck nor coincidence; nor is it something arranged by a supernatural power. It can only be the name given, due to ignorance originating from heedlessness, to nasib and kismet predestined in qadar. In that sense, the words luck and chance are regarded as appropriate.
In fact, it is wrong to call divine predestination chance but it is true that it takes place within the framework of a divine system and is based on certain criteria.
- The principle “There is no real doer other than Allah in the universe” exists in Islam; a person’s being lucky/unlucky, fortunate/unfortunate is the predestination of Allah. Human will has a share related to the issues in which it is present. However, the creation belongs only to Allah.
- In our opinion, the word CHANCE is generally used in the sense of coincidence among people. Coincidence is a product of imagination about which a certain reason is not seen, a wise and known target is not known and that whitewashes our ignorance; it is not existent; it has only a name.
The reason why Badiuzzaman Said Nursi calls this coincidence “blind coincidence” aims to indicate this reasonless and purposeless state.
“The term blind chance and coincidence attributed to nature, which heedless people regard as the creator, are delusions invented by devils originating from deviation as a result of perversion.” (Mesnevi-i Nuriye, 144 )
According to Badiuzzaman Said Nursi, The decree issued by Risale-i Nur that the mischievous network consisting of “coincidence, polytheism and nature” be deported from the Islamic world was carried out.” (Mesnevi-i Nuriye, 181)
- When a believer says, “by chance, coincidentally”, he aims to say that its real reason and wisdom is not known. Those words are generally used in this sense among Muslim people.
- The reason why the term “games of chance” is used for all kinds of gambling is to show that winning is not based on a certain rule or reason in the game, but on coincidental success. In fact, there is no coincidence; to win or to lose is based on Allah’s predestination. For, Allah is the creator of both the good and the evil. It is not evil to create evil. It is evil to obtain evil.
- If a person who has gambled cannot win any money, repents and says, “Thank Allah! He has not given me any share from gambling”, it is an appropriate sentence. For, it is a great boon for him to be kept away from haram by Allah and to be prevented from eating haram food though he himself has wanted to win haram things. This boon also necessitates thanking like other boons.
The meaning “other haram earnings take place with the help of Allah” is not deduced from it. However, Allah’s preventing a person from committing a haram with his own will is a kind of help.
As we have mentioned above, Allah is the creator of all bad deeds too. A person wants and Allah creates. For, he wants it and it is enough for him to be held responsible because man has no power to create.
The general principle is as follows: When man wants to commit a sin, if Allah allows him to do it, it is justice. If He prevents him from committing it, it is a grace and favor.
- Qadar is a kind of ilm. Allah knows everything that took place, is taking place and will take place in the past, now and in the future with His pre-eternal knowledge. This is qadar.
However, the existence of qadar, which is a kind of ilm of Allah, does not force people to do things. For, the attribute ilm (knowledge) has no power of sanction. Knowledge is subject to what is known. Allah knows something in the form that it will happen.
When all of those explanations are read carefully, it is not possible for us to accept the existence of a concept called chance in the sense of coincidence.
To sum up, since Allah’s infinite and comprehensive knowledge, power and will is everywhere and in every incident, “chance” has no chance to exist.
4-)
Are disasters such as earthquakes coincidental? Or are they our fate?
Are earthquakes fate or not? In order to analyse this, first of all, let us recall what fate means:
Fate, briefly, means that every creature and every event is known by Allah Almighty with every detail with His eternal knowledge, that they are ordained and created accordingly. Every event is “predestined”, that is, its place and time have been determined in the pre-eternity. Allah (SWT) knows everything which is to happen just as He knows those which had already happened in the past. There can be nothing left outside of the divine knowledge. Whatever happens remains within the boundaries of divine knowledge, which we briefly call fate. There is nothing in the world which happens by chance, but rather happens by divine ordaining. The reality of fate, which has surrounded all spaces and all times, has given no scope to chance.
Earthquake is also an action. Like every action, it also points to its doer. Is it ever possible for Allah (SWT), Who created the world from nothing, Who makes it go around the sun like a spacecraft, Who changes the seasons within such a great system, Who created plants, animals, human beings on earth, Who arranges infinite happenings in time, without confusion, and with a great measure, Who creates wonderful works by bringing atoms together miraculously with His vast knowledge, will and power, not to know an important occurence such as earthquake which is closely related to human beings, not to will it, to leave it unsupervised, and to leave it to chance… Is it ever possible?
Like all happenings in the world, earthquakes are also known and commanded by Allah (SWT). Every detail with regard to an earthquake exists in fate such as when, where and how it will occur, who will die and who will survive.
Having stated this basic truth and refreshed our faith, let us examine another point.
Someone may as well say:“We do not utter this sentence in order to deny fate and state that earthquakes happen by chance. Our purpose is to invite people to take the necessary measures. We can somehow prevent the destruction of this disaster with the measures such as not building constructions on seismic regions, making buildings which could resist a probable earthquake and using strong materials. We just want to warn those who ignore earthquakes by reminding them of these points.”
If the point is this, it becomes clear that calling a blind submission "fate" and suggesting that taking measures is “to change fate” are wrong standpoints. The Islamic way of true reliance on Allah (SWT) is not to await the outcome without taking any measures, but await the outcome with submission after having done everything possible. It is to act in accorance with causes and to expect the result from Allah (SWT). For, there is not such a rule as to there will be a fine result if the causes favour. The causes are not a creator but means. Whatever one might do as a measure, it is Allah (SWT) Who will create the results.
No matter whether one takes measures or not, in either case, whatever happens is “fate”. One cannot get out of fate by taking measures.If a ship changed its route, that would not mean that it got out of the ocean. We human beings are like ships going on in the ocean of fate. No matter what way we may take, no matter if we take measures or not, we cannot get out of that ocean of knowledge. It has nothing to do with true belief and understanding of fate to call going without measures fate and to suppose that taking measures mean getting rid of fate.
Situations may change, but fate does not. For example, a poor person cannot say, “I have changed my fate” by working hard and being rich. What only changes is his situation; poverty has been replaced by richness. He needs to say: “I have predestined to be poor first and then be rich.”
Islam does not tell us, “If you believe in fate, you will take no measures.” On the contrary, it wants us to take measures first and to truly rely on Allah (SWT) then.
