Focus on the Fundamentals – Part 2

It is one of the articles of our faith to believe in Divine Destiny and to be pleased with it. Ridha bil Qadha is proof of our Imaan and a sign of Tawakkul. Islamic understanding about destiny is that we have been given limited choice in our lives. Some things have been written for us and can’t be changed. In others, we have the freedom to choose what we want for ourselves. For example, we are free to eat whatever we want but what that food will do to us physically and spiritually in not in our control. The best way to understand what matters we have choice in, is to look at the questions that we will be asked in the Aakhira. We will be questioned only in matters where we have the freedom to choose. That is justice and Allah is Al-A’adil, The Just. Those are the matters we must be concerned about exclusively. عَنِ ابْنِ مَسْعُودٍ، عَنِ النَّبِيِّ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ"‏، لاَ تَزُولُ قَدَمَا ابْنِ آدَمَ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ مِنْ عِنْدِ رَبِّهِ حَتَّى يُسْأَلَ عَنْ خَمْسٍ عَنْ عُمْرِهِ فِيمَا أَفْنَاهُ وَعَنْ شَبَابِهِ فِيمَا أَبْلاَهُ وَمَالِهِ مِنْ أَيْنَ اكْتَسَبَهُ وَفِيمَ أَنْفَقَهُ وَمَاذَا عَمِلَ فِيمَا عَلِمَ"‏ Ibn Mas'ud (R) narrated that Rasoolullah  said: "The feet of the son of Adam shall not move from before his Rabb on the Day of Judgement, until he is asked about five things: About his life and what he did with it, about his youth and what he wore it out in, about his wealth and how he earned it, and what he spent it upon, and what he did with what he knew (knowledge)." We understand from this that the quantum of what we can get in this life is fixed. But we have the choice of how to get it. And that is what we will be questioned about. Rasoolullah explained this in the following Hadith. عَنْ عَبْدِ اللَّهِ بْنِ عَبَّاسٍ رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمَا قَالَ: "كُنْت خَلْفَ رَسُولِ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم يَوْمًا، فَقَالَ: يَا غُلَامِ! إنِّي أُعَلِّمُك كَلِمَاتٍ: احْفَظْ اللَّهَ يَحْفَظْك، احْفَظْ اللَّهَ تَجِدْهُ تُجَاهَك، إذَا سَأَلْت فَاسْأَلْ اللَّهَ، وَإِذَا اسْتَعَنْت فَاسْتَعِنْ بِاَللَّهِ، وَاعْلَمْ أَنَّ الْأُمَّةَ لَوْ اجْتَمَعَتْ عَلَى أَنْ يَنْفَعُوك بِشَيْءٍ لَمْ يَنْفَعُوك إلَّا بِشَيْءٍ قَدْ كَتَبَهُ اللَّهُ لَك، وَإِنْ اجْتَمَعُوا عَلَى أَنْ يَضُرُّوك بِشَيْءٍ لَمْ يَضُرُّوك إلَّا بِشَيْءٍ قَدْ كَتَبَهُ اللَّهُ عَلَيْك؛ رُفِعَتْ الْأَقْلَامُ، وَجَفَّتْ الصُّحُفُ. On the authority of Abdullah bin Abbas (RA) who said: One day I was behind Rasoolullah  [riding on the same mount] and he said, “O young man, I shall teach you some words [of advice]: Be mindful of Allah and Allah will protect you. Be mindful of Allah and you will find Him in front of you. If you ask, ask Allah [alone]; and if you need help, seek help from Allah [alone]. And know that if the nations were to gather to benefit you with anything, they would not benefit you except with what Allah  has already prescribed for you. And if they were to gather to harm you with anything, they would not harm you except with what Allah  has already prescribed against you. The pens have been lifted and the pages have dried.” (Tirmidhi) The deception of Shaytaan is that he convinces us to worry about what is not in our control and already written and about which we will not be questioned, i.e., amount of wealth, material, power, knowledge, influence, and all such things. And to not worry about the things that we will be questioned about, i.e., how we acquired all these things. The antidote to this deception is to leave the ‘What’ to Allah and focus on the ‘How’. If we do the ‘How’, right, Allah will put Baraka (blessing) in all that He gave us and fill our lives with the sweetness and light of His Mercy and Pleasure. If instead of this, we use wrong means to get our material wants in this life, it will attract the punishment and anger of Allah but the amount of what we get will not change. We will still get only what Allah wrote for us. Does it make sense to spoil our eternal situation to get something which we would...