The Meaning Of Destiny And Decree
This article covers the clarification of the meaning of destiny and decree.
In a sense, Decree and Destiny are of the same meaning, but in another, Destiny means pre-determination or pre-ordinance, while Decree means the execution of this ordinance or putting it into effect. To define more clearly and elaborately, Destiny means that from the micro-cosmic (atoms) to the macro-cosmic (the universe as a whole), from particles to galaxies, God Almighty, Who knows everything down to the minutest and Whose Knowledge includes all space and time while Himself is absolutely beyond all time and space, gives existence in His Knowledge to all things or beings and assigns to each a certain shape, life-span, function or mission and certain particularities. This can be understood by an analogy -God’s is the highest comparison, and He is absolutely beyond all comparison and different from whatever a man conceives of Him- with an author’s having the full and exact knowledge of the book he will write and arranging it in his mind in chapters, sections, paragraphs, sentences and words before writing it. In this sense, Destiny is almost identical with Divine Knowledge or Destiny is a title of Divine Knowledge, and is also called the Manifest Record or the Supreme Preserved Tablet.
Destiny also means that God makes everything according to a certain, particular measure and in exact balance. The Holy Book declares:
“God knows what every female bears and what the wombs absorb and what they grow. And everything with Him is measured (13:8).”
“The sun and the moon are made punctual according to a calculation. The stars and the trees adore, in subservience to Him. And the sky He has uplifted; and He has set the balance, that you exceed not the balance, but observe the balance strictly, nor fall short thereof (55: 5-9).“
The exact balance and harmony in the universe clearly show the existence of Divine Destiny; that is, the universe, as a whole and with all the individual things or beings in it, which display an exact measure, balance, order and harmony, shows that everything is determined, measured, created and governed by God Almighty. Assertions like determinism, which is upheld by many, including even the supporters of the Marxist ideology, in explaining the order and operation of the universe including human kingdom, are a tacit admission of Destiny, even though absolute determinism is incompatible with God’s religion in explaining the actions of man.
Living hands
All seeds, fruit stones, measured and proportioned forms and the extraordinary order and harmony of the universe and its operation for billions of years without displaying the slightest breakdown or deviation in any part of it, all this demonstrates that everything takes place according to the absolute determination of God Almighty. Each seed or fruit stone and even each ovum fertilized by a male sperm is like a case formed by Divine Power into which Divine Destiny has in-built the future life-history of a plant or an animal being. Divine Power employs atoms or particles according to the measure established by Divine Destiny as building blocks in growing the particular seed into the particular plant and the particular fertilized ovum into the particular being. This means that the future life history of that plant or the animal being and the principles to govern its life are pre-recorded in the seed or the fertilized ovum as determining factors and processes.
Although the basic materials from which plants and animal beings, including human beings, are formed are the same, there is an almost infinite variety between species and individuals. The plants and animals that grow from the same constituent basic elements display such harmony and proportion, and yet such abundant diversity, that man cannot help but conclude that each of them is individually given its particular form and measure. It is Divine Destiny, which establishes this measure.
By M. Fethullah Gulen