Divine Decree And Destiny In Relation With Divine Will

This article covers the relationship between Divine Decree and Destiny in Relation with Divine Will.

God registers everything in His Knowledge in a record and gives it its own particular characteristics, appointing for it its life span and provision. He also (pre-) records when and where one will be born and die and what one will do during one’s whole lifetime. All this takes place by Divine Will.

It is through Divine Will that everything and every event, whether in the realm of Divine Knowledge or in the realm of material existence, including man’s life, is (pre-) determined and given a certain course or direction. Nothing occurs beyond the scope of the Divine Will.

Embryo

Consider that, for example, there are innumerable alternatives before an embryo in the female womb: whether it will grow as an animate being or come to the world or not, when and where it will be born, how long it will live, when and where it will die, etc. All beings are different from one another in complexion and countenance, down to the fingerprints, character, likes and dislikes, and so on, although they are all formed from the same basic elements. Again, for a particle of food, which enters a body either in the stage of an embryo or full development, there are countless alternatives where it will go and be settled. If, for example, a single particle, which must go to the pupil of the right eye and be settled there, were to go to the right ear, this might result in an anomaly. Thus, it is by the all-encompassing Divine Will that everything occurs according to a miraculously calculated plan, and it is again by the divine Will that there is a miraculous order and harmony in the universe. No leaf falls, nor a single seed germinates under earth. But God wills it to do so.

By M. Fethullah Gulen