Destiny: A Reality or Myth

By Muhammad kabir Yusuf

“Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant”

From the word “Destination”, destiny means what we do, achieve or what happens to us in our lives, more especially the one that we cannot change no matter how we strive to. Destiny is believed to be the power behind the series of episodes in our lives. Mostly used with negative connotation, the word “fate” is sometimes used interchangeably with the word destiny. For example, it was his destiny that he lost his parents at a tender age and his fate that he remained uneducated.

Against this background, one may assumed that this life is just like a movie, pre-recorded and being played back by the forces of destiny. The meaning one easily deduces from the above analogy is that; the success one attains in life is pre-determined by the forces of destiny and therefore, no amount of obstacles could otherwise be hindrance against one’s attainment of such success. It also implies that it will not only be useless but meaningless for some one to strive against odds or struggle to attain any success in life. The central character of our analogical movie would remain the same so long as the movie had been recorded for a long time ago.

It is unfortunate that many people perceived “destiny” just as described above. The perception is so deeply rooted in their minds that it controls their subconscious mind. The so much reluctance in our society is a bona fide child of this perception. This reluctance by extension, fuels the already manufactured ship of underdevelopment which triggers poverty, disease, poor education, mal nutrition and general dependency on the so-called developed world.

On the other extreme end of the continuum is another brand of people, who would blatantly, say they don’t believe in anything destiny. Some times in a softer language, they would say that they believed they are capable of changing their destiny or at least, reshaping the destiny. This opinion is not only too radical for every right thinking individual to believe but also contradicts philosophy, logic and religion.

Although destiny as a power behind our actions and inactions is metaphysical, philosophers at different times and locations, from antiquity to date, talked about metaphysical power behind the beautiful constitution of this World and the people activities in the World. Logically speaking, no one could have personally affected the design of whether he would be born dead or alive, male or female.

As the major contributor to the formulation of the destiny as a concept, all the monotheistic religions advocate the existence of one God, who designs, monitors, and controls our lives.

To be at the safer side, one needs to be some where on the continuum of destiny, between those who see destiny as a license to reluctance and those who see it as a mere fallacy. One would be deceiving oneself to remain indoors and be thinking that if it’s one’s destiny that one will be a wealthy rich, the wealth will come to him overnight. It is equally wrong to think that because you have struggled you must achieve your aim. The logical conclusion to the issue is that, one must struggle in life bearing in mind that one’s struggle is not necessarily directly proportional to one’s achievements. Mr. A may work harder than Mr. B, but the situation maybe more favourable to Mr. B to achieve greater ends.

Islam, which seems to have contributed immensely to the development of the concept of destiny has readily provided the most realistic solution to the question of destiny. According to Islam, the process of the individual struggle is an act of worshipping Allah. Therefore, the achievements one registers through the struggle are packages of reward for the act of worship. Whether or not the whole packages of the reward would be presented to a person in this World or be preserved for him in the next World is to be decided by Allah Himself, the One who is worshiped. “You work and Allah sees your work” Qur’an.