Destiny is a word that is familiar to our ears, even very familiar because destiny always refers to a religion that is very familiar and hits almost every human mind. Destiny is also a topic that has been discussed inexhaustible throughout history. In the history of Islam, the jabariyah and qadariyah traditions have sharp differences in their understanding of destiny.
In this paper I try to discuss this problem of destiny by relying on reasoning, so don't expect that this paper will include religious propositions to strengthen my argument about destiny. It's not that I am a person who discredits religion or denigrates religion.
I have an understanding that including religious propositions to strengthen personal arguments is a form of selfishness because human thoughts are very likely to be wrong, whereas religious propositions which are the words of God are impossible to be wrong. Therefore, including religious arguments to strengthen personal arguments will only lead to distrust of religion in the next period because they are considered to be false arguments, even though people's understanding is wrong, not their religious arguments.
Destiny, in a general sense, relates to the problem of sustenance, matchmaking, and death which has been determined by God and there is no human intervention in it. I think differently, all of these things contain human interference in them. Of course, my understanding is very likely to be wrong, but of course, humans can't know that our understanding is wrong if it has never been put forward.
In my opinion, destiny is a universal rule or measure of God in his creation, is it possible to understand it? Of course, but as I have argued, human understanding is highly fallible. For example, we are given fingers and are free to move our fingers at will, we are given feet to freely run anywhere, and so on.
Referring to the example above, how does destiny work? Yes, we are free to move our fingers, but we still have limits in every movement. Can we move our thumbs beyond the limit set by God that made the base of the bone? Of course not. That's destiny in my opinion.
Then what about sustenance? Indeed, there is no choice for human children to be born in families that have more economic abilities and that is a destiny that must be accepted. Sometimes we call our brothers who were born from families with less economic disadvantages, so where is God's justice?
Is sustenance only related to economic capacity? I don't think so even though most of us think that way. It is true that people who are born to families with low economic capacity are not fortunate materially, but have we ever thought that it is a big advantage for his soul? The best education for our souls is suffering. Almost all big people were born to small families with hardships and hardships. That is the only justice of God.
Destiny in the context of sustenance as I have stated above is a universal rule or measure. In this context, if we want to get an abundance of sustenance then work smart and hard! This is destiny, whoever works smart and hard will get a reward like an abundance of sustenance. It is not simply that a child is destined or destined to become a billionaire before he is born. If in the future he does not work smart, it is impossible that he will become a billionaire.
It feels easy to understand destiny in the context of sustenance, then what about a mate? Is it true that our partners will be determined before we are born? I do not think so, I think our partners will also be the result of the efforts of humans themselves. Humans are free to choose their partners with their efforts. The proof is not a few men who have more than one wife. A married couple is not a destiny that is determined from birth, because it is unfair if God determines that someone has one and more than one partner.
We are free to marry whomever we like, but we are not free to love someone. That's a match! A soul mate is someone we love, not someone we marry, although, along the way we may love the person we marry, of course, it's different if we marry someone we love and don't. Luckily the person who marries someone he loves.
If so, is matchmaking something that is beyond our will? I do not think so. I thought that why we could fall in love with someone is not a coincidence, but before that, we had the ideal concept of a partner in mind. Whether we realize it or not, all humans have an ideal concept in mind, including about a partner. Now, once someone approaches the ideal concept of a partner, our brains work by releasing hormones that make us fall in love to get and marry that person.
How about death? Doesn't the religious argument state that death cannot be hastened or postponed? Not really in my opinion. Just imagine if someone with a lot of money gets cancer and someone who is poor gets cancer (in the same cancer status). Of course, people who have a lot of money have a greater chance of being cured. After all, they get better quality care than poor people because they don't have funds for medical treatment.
In the matter of death, we also have a stake in determining when death will pick up, although not a few are picked up by death suddenly. Apart from divine secrets, we are also obliged to maintain our health to postpone death because destiny is also a universal measure of God, who does not take care of his health, it is certain that destiny will pick up faster than those who maintain his health.
However, is there no divine intervention in our lives? Of course not. This is evidenced by the word fail. Failure is a human lack of understanding of God's destiny which is incompatible with his dreams. Maybe we don't deserve what we want, or even God wants us to get something more than we want.
We don't fully understand our destiny, just as we don't fully understand nature and many scientists agree on this. So, we cannot be completely sure of the results that will be obtained later by reflecting on our efforts because it is not ourselves who knows fully about our efforts, but God who knows best.
This writing feels like the writing of an atheist that deeply discredits the role of God, but I am not an atheist and I believe in God's existence. God's miracles are indeed true and miracles are possible. But is it not better if we obey God's universal rules or standards? Like for example, we want to be rich? So work smart and hard, want to have a partner we love? Struggle to win her over, want to have a long life? So take care of health and live healthily.
As I have stated that my personal opinion is very likely to be wrong and I hope that readers can find mistakes and correct them with the existing evidence, not just imitation without the contextualization of religious arguments because reading text very textually is blinding of reason which is also certainly a gift from God. Not caring for God's grace is not a form of gratitude that is required in religion.
