Fate rules wishes
It is natural for man to aspire for things his eyes and heart covet. Apart from natural needs such as food, water, air, and shelter; man is all the time full of wishes. Until his last breath on earth, there is always something for the heart of man to desire. A man without wishes has […]
It is natural for man to aspire for things his eyes and heart covet. Apart from natural needs such as food, water, air, and shelter; man is all the time full of wishes. Until his last breath on earth, there is always something for the heart of man to desire. A man without wishes has not been born. The richest man on earth occasionally has something to complain about. Even “The rich”, they say, “also cry”.
Men of God, too, including Prophets and Messengers of Allah (SWT) had cause to ask Allah for specific favors. Man is not required to strive in the cause of the Hereafter as to forget the legitimate needs of this life. Allah (SWT) reminds us in Qur’an 28:77 “But seek, with the (wealth) which Allah has bestowed on thee, the Home of the Hereafter; nor forget thy portion in this world…” Man’s wishes are divided between mundane and spiritual matters. Spiritually, man asks Allah for forgiveness, mercy, paradise, etc. His passion, however, for worldly things is underscored by how much or less materialistic he is. Man turns to Allah in asking for all that gives comfort in life including wealth, wife/wives, children, position, knowledge, health, safety, and peace.
Whether for worldly or spiritual needs, Allah enjoins us to call upon Him for all our needs; affirming that He (SWT) is close to us and grants all requests tendered by His righteous servants. He thus states in Qur’an 2:186 “When My servants ask thee concerning Me, I am indeed close (to them): I listen to the prayer of every supplicant when he calls on Me…” Allah has different ways of answering the prayers of His servants.
Because of man’s limited knowledge, he prays to Allah to grant him everything his heart desires including those things that may be detrimental to his well-being when granted. Man, for instance, could ask for a leadership position, which unknown to him, could lead to his own destruction in the end. Allah has His own ways of answering the prayers of His servants. Allah knows better whether the lady a young man is proposing and insisting to marry would bring peace to his home or ruin it. Allah has a way of answering the naïve prayers of supplicants who, of course, naturally lack knowledge of the future.
No requests made by a righteous servant as confirmed by Qur’an 2:186 quoted earlier is ever left unanswered by Allah. It is expected of man to have faith in whichever way Allah decides to answer his prayers. The form in which Allah answers a man’s prayer sprouts from destiny. Fate is what Allah has planned for you to do or achieve in life. Prayer is what actually inspires you to do it. In order for man to achieve peace and tranquility in life, he is enjoined to accept the result(s) of his supplications and give gratitude to Allah; whether or not his prayers were answered in the exact form he wanted. Crisis would always set in each time man fails or refuses to reconcile between his wishes and fate.
One of the ways by which Allah answers the prayers of supplicants is to promptly grant the request(s). The request could be a demand for sources to settle debts; recovery from sickness; deliverance from a dangerous situation; etc. Qur’an 21:76, for instance, tells us of how Prophet Nuh (AS) prayed to Allah (SWT) and was delivered along with his family from great distress. Prophet Ayub (Job in Christendom) prayed to Allah to deliver him from the calamities that befell him and his request was granted. Ayub (AS) suffered from a number of calamities: his cattle were destroyed, his servants were killed, and his family crushed under his roof. He was, as a further calamity, covered with loathsome sores from head to foot. Qur’an 21:83-84 explains how Allah (SWT) listened to Ayub (AS) and removed the agony that was on him.
We are similarly told in Qur’an 21:87-88 that Zu-Nun (AS) also prayed to Allah (SWT) and was instantly delivered from the trouble he was in. “Zu-Nun” meaning “the man of the whale” is the Qur’anic title of Prophet Yunus (Jonah) because he was swallowed by a whale. Apparently disappointed by the response of the people of Nineveh to whom he was sent, he went away to a sea and took a ship. The sailors during the voyage threw him out as a man of bad omen. He was swallowed by a whale and in the depth of the darkness he cried out to Allah and was saved.
A second other way through which Allah grants the request(s) of His servants is to defer actualization to a later date or period, which could be long or short depending on when Allah, the all-knowing, chooses as the best time. Qur’an 14:39 tells us that Prophet Ibrahim (AS) continued to pray for a child but was not blessed with one until when he was old. He was 100 years old when Ishaq (a Prophet also) was born; and was 99 years of age when Ismail (his first son and a Prophet) was 13 years old, having been born when Ibrahim (AS) was 86 years old. Let us see the granting of requests at a later date to be the best time for them to happen. “God’s time”, they say, “is the best.”.
Allah, the Omniscient, also grants prayer by offering other than what was requested. This is a third form by which Allah grants prayers. As a way of accepting our prayers, Allah who knows what is best and bad for us gives us something better in place of what we begged for; particularly if what we asked for would be detrimental to our wellbeing. Allah states in Qur’an 2:216 “… But it is possible that ye dislike a thing which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knows (best) and ye know not.”
Even when Allah refuses to give us something in place of what we asked for, that is also part of an answered prayer. It is better that Allah denies us an evil without a replacement than to give it simply because we want our prayers answered. If your vehicle breaks down while on a journey, such should be seen as Allah’s way of accepting your prayers for safety. That could be Allah’s way of averting a fatal accident. May Allah guide us to believe in and accept fate as Allah’s best wishes for us, amin.