ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Islamic Business Ethics You and God ============== A. Human Efforts and Divine Decree Both Muslims and non-Muslims who readily use the belief in predestination and divine decree to explain the present backwardness of some Muslim societies often misunderstand the issue of divine decree vis-a-vis the seeking of livelihood. Therefore, the role played by humans and God in this issue needs to be clearly understood.

When it comes to human actions, Muslims believe that while the power to act is given to us by God, the ultimate decision whether to act or not is our own-this is why we are accountable for our deeds and will be questioned for them on the Day of Judgment. The story, however, is completely different when we talk about those aspects of our Lives that arc predetermined by God (taqdir).

There are only a few aspects of our lives (like life, death and sustenance) which can be listed under the category of predestination -taqdir. When it comes to taqdir, to a certain extent, we believe that while human beings provide the preliminaries, the result is in the hands of God. Farmers, for example, can cultivate the land, sow the seed, irrigate the plants, weed the grass and always remain on alert. Yet, they cannot be sure of getting the harvest.

A drought, cyclone, fire or lightening may destroy the crop. The issue of livelihood is one of the taqd'irs of God. Therefore, we believe that seeking of livelihood is within the sphere of our capabilities but the result is not within our powers.

That is the meaning of the verse: “Allah expands the sustenance for whomsoever He desires and straitens it for whomsoever He desires...” (13:26) However, we as humans have no knowledge of the nature and the quantity of the sustenance that God has decreed for us; therefore, we are expected to work as hard as we can and then pray to Allah to bless our efforts and not let our toils go fruitless.[^1] ***** The Quran gives an interesting parable of two men: one who exclusively relied on his own hard work and denied the Divine role in his wealth, while the other was cognizant of God's role: “For one of them We made two gardens of grape vines, and We surrounded them both with palms and in the midst of them, We made cornfields.

Both these gardens yielded their fruits, and failed not at all, and We caused a river to gush forth in their midst. Moreover, he possessed much wealth.