Divine Determining – Part 6

Divine determining is the Divine’s responsibility.

• My responsibility is within the realm of my free choice
• Do not confuse these two realms

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“It is the law of God which has taken course aforetime. And you will never find any change in God’s law.”

As far as God’s Absolute Power is concerned, it encompasses everything across time because He must exist beyond time and space.

• At every moment, I observe a new creation taking place
• But as far as God is concerned, He knows everything Absolutely, without the limitations of time
• He knows everything, including my choices

God is Absolute; I am subject to the limitations of given choices

The way God creates never changes. He is Absolute. For the Absolute every thing exists, that is. “The Creator does not change His Mind.” This is how a human being could describe the relationship between the universe and its Creator.

• God’s law works according to His knowledge
• The nature of His knowledge is Absolute
  • He knows everything and establishes creation based on our choices; that is His law

It is He who willed for me to have free choice within a certain field

• God creates according to my free choice as far as my given field is concerned
• I am free to choose; It is He Who creates as I choose
  • At every moment I am making choices
  • Making choices is part of our humanity; we cannot run away from it.

We have nothing in our ability to CREATE

• But every human being is qualified to know and understand the Creator through his/her qualities given by Him.

In the story of Musa and Khidr, we are being taught that human beings have no knowledge unless the Absolute Creator provides knowledge

• Through the story told in the Qur’an about Khidr, we learn that the Creator has Absolute Knowledge

In the story Khidr represents the Absolute qualities of the Creator; Moses represents the created human free choice, which operates within time and space.

Differentiate between choice and expectations

• I am free to choose how to act within the laws of the universe by obeying them within the given field
• But it does not necessarily mean that the action/result will happen according to my expectations!
  • The fact that results are NOT within my realm of control, is a sign that the Creator has Absolute Knowledge and Absolute Will. That is why I should not be concerned with the results; I should pay attention to the decision I make by using my free will. The results of my choice are only important to learn whether I made a right decision according to the laws of creation, which are the Absolute Choice of the Creator.
• Within the field of creation, the Creator creates and sets the boundaries
• Divine determining does not determine my free will, that is, I am free to use it as I am given. That is why it is me who is responsible for my choices although it is not me who creates them.
  • At any given moment, I find myself with complete freedom to choose how I want to act so that is my realm of responsibility.

Example: I am sick and take medication but I do not get well

• My choice: I choose to take the medications
• When I do not get well, I ought to see the wisdom/lesson behind it:

1. I am not taking the right medicines
2. My time is up

• I want to get well BUT I cannot create anything
• My remaining ill is part of the Absolute Creator’s will yet in my own realm of responsibility, I have to choose an action that corresponds with my human qualities
  • I find myself disliking being ill
  • When I dislike something, I choose to ‘rectify’ it based on the knowledge I have
  • I take medications as a way to get better BECAUSE that is what I have learnt about how the order of the universe works, which is the Will of the Creator.
  • But, when I take medication, I ought to be aware that the medicines by themselves have no ability to heal.
  • Rather, I am beseeching the One under whom this universe lies, to heal me.
  • In my beseeching I should be conscious of my feeble and weak state which cannot create anything, and remember that my Creator is the All Powerful.

I am responsible for my choices

• I have to obey the laws of creation and the laws of shari’a
• The Creator will create as He wills

I pray but the response is not as I expected. What does that mean?

• Is the Creator not responding?
• The Creator’s realm is Absolute; My realm lies within the given capacity of my free will
• My responsibility is to pursue the law of Creation
• I only ask; He Creates as He wills At this point I need to be careful about several aspects of the matter under discussion:

1- His law of creation does not change because it is already established.

2- This established law without being subject to time includes my choices that I make with my given free will.

3- His Free Will decides alongside with His Absolute Knowledge.

4- I do not know what He knows about my choice, so I have to use my free will to follow His laws.

5- While I am using my free will I am choosing from among the given alternatives.

6- His Absolute Knowledge does not hamper me from freely choosing from among the given alternatives.

• • I should not transgress and enter The Creator’s realm
• The best response to our prayer is to gain the AWARENESS that we are totally needy and dependent.

I am only responsible for my free will. I have no responsibility over God’s determining

• My concern is to simply follow His law
• I can ‘want’ something very desperately and pray very fervently BUT I have to remember that I am a created being whose only ability is to ask
• God creates according to His Absolute Will, which manifests itself as the law of creation. Speaking in terms of our realm, God’s Absolute Will does not manifest as we call it “arbitrarily” without His Absolute Wisdom.

To supplicate (ask from the Creator) is my choice.

• I can only act within my realm
• We have to acknowledge that we cannot create
• The only One who can create, is the Creator
• If I choose not to accept that in fact I am supplicating God to create what I have chosen, I am misusing my free will
  • My free will tells me: I cannot achieve what I want but I can ask from the Creator, who creates everything
  • All that is expected from me is to practice my free will as a means of pray
  • We cannot impose our desires upon God; In doing so, we are entering His realm

We can only send the petition;

• Our ultimate goal is to know the Creator; it is not about ‘obtaining’ what I want
• We are here not to change the hearts of people and we have to admit this reality
  • It is my duty to acknowledge that I cannot create anything and He is All-Powerful
    • Once I have acknowledged this, I have fulfilled my duty

Surah Fatiha: ‘Guide us to the right path’ – We are asking for ALL of creation to be guided. That is, to be created in a way that I prefer them to be. That is the way for me to express my need for every thing in the universe to be created to be compatible to my expectations. I cannot make them exist as I want, but I acknowledge that only the Creator God can.

• Present whatever you wish to God
• If our desired response is ANYTHING apart from acknowledging His Absolute-ness, then we have failed to really pray because prayer means submitting to His Absolute Will

My desire to be healthy is a NEED

• I express my neediness to the only one who can give me health
• I have to acknowledge my reality
• Our prayer is not meant to be an EXPECTATION. It is supposed to be an ACKNOWLEDGMENT of His Absolute Ownership

I pray not because I want to guarantee a place in Paradise. I pray because my reality is to be needy of wanting to go to Paradise.

• If I do not pray (submit) I find myself in turmoil because I am not connected to the Creator
• In the Quran, Allah promises paradise for those who pray
• Whether He grants me paradise or not is HIS responsibility
• My responsibility is merely to pray

Do not confuse my realm with the Creator’s realm

• My realm is merely to admit my need
• His realm encompasses creatorship

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“Should He not know what He created. While He alone is unfathomable [in His wisdom], aware! (Mulk, 67:14)

• We have to know that the knowledge of the owner of this universe is Absolute
• Just observe the universe and see how everything points to His Absolute Wisdom and Knowledge
• The law of creation in universe is according to His knowledge
• There is none apart from Him, the Creator, whom I can trust

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“Therefore do not give likenesses to Allah; surely Allah knows and you do not know.” (Nahl, 16:74)

He is Absolute, there is nothing that can be likened to Him

• Everything that we know and that is around us is of the CREATED world
• He is the Creator
• The One who created the universe knows what He is doing; the universe is a witness to it
  • We should only use our free will within the limits of our knowledge. We have to admit that we cannot know more than what we are allowed to know.
  • The Creator is Absolute; Everything is created only by Him and everything in the universe bears testimony to His Absolute-ness

Be concerned with your responsibility and do not interfere with God’s realm.