What is the extent of our control over what happens in this life?

Greetings and peace be with you alhamdulillah.;

Are we just in control of our actions and how we respond to different situations in our lives?

Or is Allah also in control sometimes of our actions?

When we pray and ask for help and Allah responds, he is then in control. Just a thought.

In the spirit of putting our trust in God.

Eric

Certain things in life, such as the family into which we are born, our physical appearance, illness, etc are predestined by Allah swt.

However, the actions, choices, and decisions we make in life in response to what Allah swt has predestined are entirely ours, due to the free will Allah swt has given humans, as well as jinns. Life is like an exam, the questions are presented before you but the way you answer is entirely up to you.

I don't mean to complicate things, but there's this beautiful hadith that dua has the power to change even the divine decree if Allah swt wills:

The Prophet (Peace be upon Him) said: “Nothing can change the Divine decree except Dua.” (Narrated by Ahmad, 5/677; Ibn Maajah, 90; al-Tirmidhi, 139.)

While we do have free will, Allah has more control over us than we have over ourselves, right?

Just last night, water went down my lung pipe. I thought I was going to die. I didn't know how to bring the water out. So I pointed with the index finger to the sky, and made inner dua to help me get out of this situation.

And I did. I got soo paranoid that night I forgot to eat (almost). I feared that if I ate, that my lung pipe would open again, so I ate slower than usual. This first hand experience shows me, at least, that Allah, despite our free will, have more control over us, than we have over ourselves.

If Allah willed, we could never move even our fingers.

Allahu alam.

I watched a street dawah YT video the other day,the brother that was giving dawah basically said that Allah(swt) sets up life scenario's or paths for us and its up to us, our free will how we deal with it,it could be a good or bad choice its down to us,our free will how we deal with it in that situation

format_quote Originally Posted by Karina Rahman

How we will come to know abt certain situations that it is predestined by Allah(swt) or it is our decision???

Well to this i noticed something in the Qur'an.

"And similarly, We caused them to be found that they [who found them] would know that the promise of Allah is truth and that of the Hour there is no doubt. [That was] when they disputed among themselves about their affair and [then] said, "Construct over them a structure. Their Lord is most knowing about them." Said those who prevailed in the matter, "We will surely take [for ourselves] over them a masjid." Qur'an 18:21

Allah tells about the story of the young men in the cave. They tried to stay hidden in the sense of nobody noticing them, however Allah says "We caused them to be found". In other words, what is in your ability to prevent OR to make something happen and it did not happen as how you wanted it, that is fate. While things that you do have control over doing so and change the order of things, that is your free will. With this for example if Allah puts a beautiful woman on my path do i engage in talk or not? Or do i look away and follow my own path? Allah is clear in this

"And do not approach unlawful sexual intercourse. Indeed, it is ever an immorality and is evil as a way." Qur'an 17:32

Allah says do not approach, so in other words the right path is clear from the wrong path, me engaging in a talk even a small talk..is approaching it. Rather look away and head your own path. There is however sometimes a very deep philosophical level one can go as sometimes we do not do something and we blame ourselves for not doing it. Maybe because lack of motivation or laziness, however because of not having done that, certain clear path emerges that indeed it was good not doing it. So if this is fate or not fate..i sometimes almost argue this might even be fate.

How? I know about a event when Rasullah(saws) was not a Rasul yet, he wanted to go to a place of gathering where people were listening to music etc out of curiosity. But before he could enter Allah made him tired and let him fall in sleep at the place of his standing. One might think..well this is because of being tired in the first place, however we know that was not the case. So the argument is what is laziness and what is fate? The "small" things are off course laziness..praying on time and such. However MAYBE the larger things that can change the direction of your life can be fate.

To make it more clear instead of being abstract. In the past i wanted to immigrate back to where i came from as i wanted to go to a place where i could practice my deen the best. I was 100% sure of my decision and was very motivated to do so. However because of my laziness in school i couldn't do so yet. What happened later on is when i went on vacation to there i noticed small things to even the bigger things. I noticed that that place was the LAST place i should be as it would be even WORSE to practice my deen accordingly. If i wasn't lazy at school, i might already have immigrated, however because of laziness i "took" the time and realized that it was bad. I also realized other things as well. So was this "laziness"in school my laziness? That i do not know..and i say "Allah knows best", however because how things have went..i say ALHAMDULILLAH this prevented me from making the BIGGEST mistake of my life. As i know who i am i am afraid i would have become one of the people on Day of Judgement that would have bitten on his hands in regret because i deviated from the path of what Rasullah(saws) said is the right path (Qur'an and his Sunnah). As by majority the people there the last thing on their mind is what Allah might think of this or that. Alhamdulillah Allah has made their life circle around Islam (praying, Khutbah, ramadan etc.), however they themselves choose intentionally to not go to khutbah..sleep mostly during the day when it is ramadan, praying at home while a mosque is almost at the corner of every street. When you object to this as you want to indeed follow the path of Islam, they look at you as a burden..in other words a lot of fights. They rather are afraid of the opinion of their neighbors instead of what Allah thinks of them.

So again ALHAMDULILLAH..ALHAMDULILLAH..ALHAMDULILLAH!!!

That is a very good question!

Worth rubbing the 2 cents together.. ha ha ha.. Salam Ramadan to all! Not been here for a while.

Time brings everything, all the varying situations, challenges, etc that we as individuals have to deal with. Some we can avoid making decisions but some we have to.

The thing is, the decisions we make are based on certain factors that is part of us individually, but the situation at hand is Allah's. The thing is, Allah Knows all possibilities very much like a complex video game is programmed. The programmer 'technically' knows every possibility because he programmed it in. Very much like chess. All the possibilities are known. But the choice, the decision to do one thing over the other is not Allah's. He may Will the situation or circumstances to lead you to those tests, but it is us, you and I that has to resist!

Allah says for us to 'find' Him. Find Him we must. So we must control our will and to make the right choices and if the tests persists, to remain patient, but to still forge ahead. Never despair. That is it, no? The extent of what we can control??

So the rest really becomes irrelevant. Am I making sense or way, way off?

format_quote Originally Posted by Eric H

Greetings and peace be with you alhamdulillah.;

When we pray and ask for help and Allah responds, he is then in control. Just a thought.

In the spirit of putting our trust in God.

Eric

What came to my mind from this answer was that without the control of Allah it is like we would sail in the ship with no rudder. Yes we will get somewhere but even we ourselves have no idea to where we are going.

I think you didn´t understand meaning of my comment. I wrote what life would to be without the control of Allah.