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Destiny and Islamic Manhood…

Destiny and Islamic Manhood are intertwined. Destiny is not merely a coincidence based on our choices as men. It is the function of our proper development in Muslim Masculinity. Allah has set out rules for certain types of people. God makes promises to us all over the Quran. For example, if we have trust in his sustanence, then he will provide for us. If we consciously disobey him, then we will be punished in some way shape or form. If we struggle for Allah's sake then he will provide us with victory in this life and the next. The promises and the guarantees are absolute concepts in the universe. What is not absolute is what we choose to be.

When God speaks of certain things happening to men, He, many times gives us a story. What we must understand is that this story is an indicator of what will happen to people who are like those men he speaks about. In other words, that is a sign for our destiny. The word of God is alive. But it is not alive in the manner that we percieve life. It is alive in an infinitely deeper way than we can perceive. The word of God is our destiny. However, destiny is infinite, so how does that apply to us as men?

God has given us the ability to choose which category of destiny that we want to be in. If you think about it, there are formulas in science. The purpose of a formula is to show the relationship between different things through symbols.  Thus, if you combine 2 and 2, then on the other side, you get 4.  Destiny works in a similar fashion. God says in the Quran "Is there any reward for good, other than good?" So if one does good on one side, then good will happen to him on the other side. Now we all hear this saying, "why to bad things happen to good people?" My question would be, why do we perceive it as such? Nothing bad ever happens to those who do good. The 'bad' things that we pereive happening are a test from Allah to bring that person closer or it may be a cleansing of previous sins out of God's love for us, or it can be people with corruption in their hearts acting with ill will. I would not say bad things happen to good people. I would say bad people happen to good people. This is because bad people have to the choice to be bad, but no matter what they do, it still elevates the good people closer to God.

The examples of bad people acting upon the best of people are endless. In fact, the better you are, the more malice comes at you. This is apart of destiny. As men, we must develop to put ourselves in the best of categories. Then we will be given our responsibility as human beings to maintain and care for the creation as Allah told us. Let us look at the five greatest people and what bad people tried to do to them. Imagine being mocked and ridiculed by your own people for over 900 years. Thats what Noah went through in trying to bring the truth. Imagine your own father and family along with your own people in your village making a fire so big, that it burned the birds flying in the air. Imagine if they made that fire just to throw you in because you told your people there is one God. This is what happened to Abraham.

Imagine your whole country trying to kill you because you stopped a man from beating up a poor man. Imagine having to walk, yes walk from Cairo to Jerusalem. This is what Moses had to do. Imagine after curing people and telling them the truth, your people try to crucify you, and you have evil people trying to infultrate your disciples. This is what Christ Jesus went through. Imagine going through all the above and losing your father before you were born and your mother when you were six, your true love and your father figure in the same year, lose ALL of your sons, your brave uncle. Imagine losing all of those people and risking your life constantly through onslaughts of your enemies because you tell the people there is one God. This and so much more is what Muhammad (peace be on him) went through. People who were not prophets, but were elevated in their faith went through the same things. The french threw Amadou Bamba (one of the greatest scholars in W. African history)  in a fire, but it did not kill him. Nor did it kill him when they threw him at lions and other predators (they miraculously became tame for him). They firebombed Malcolm X's home. They whipped chunks of skin off of Ahmad ibn Hanbal (r).  Bad people poison, jail, blackmail, assassinate, and whatever else it takes so good cannot exist in the world.

This is destinty. Allah has certain things happen to us because it is his word and his promise. Our choice comes into play by choosing which category (or 'adventure' we want to have) through developing our selves and our masculinity.  The adventure we choose is up to us. How it plays out and wheather or not we choose to stay in that adventure is also up to us. The elevation and supremacy over the creation that we will have, and the status in the garden of Eden with all other elevated men and women, we will let God take care of that. Do know that if we try as hard as we can, Allah and destiny will have our backs.

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