Destiny &

Human Choice
Beyza, Eylül & Alisa
01
Beyza
 What is God’s Will & Human Will
Human Will
In philosophy and science means “the
human capacity to actively decide
what to do instead of reacting
automatically to stimuli”.
This just means our freedom of choice
to choose and make decisions for
ourselves
God’s Will
“Only what God has decreed will
happen to us. He is our Master: let the
believers put their trust in God.”
(From the Quran, Chapter 9, Verse
51.)
This just means that everything that
happens is known and allowed by
Allah.
 How Does This Relate To Freedom Of Choice?

Most people get confused and think, “if god knows everything that is going to happen, and all the choices I am going to
make, then what is the point of me choosing, do I even have a freedom of choice?”
Well, the answer is that just because Allah knows what is going to happen to us, that doesn’t mean we have no choice.

Knowing something is going to happen and making something happen is two different things. This may be confusing to
understand, so I’ll give an example.

Let’s say that I offer Eylül $1000 or $10, she would obviously choose the $1000. Just because I know what she is going to
choose, doesn’t mean that I forced or made Eylül pick the $1000, I simply knew what she was going to choose in my head.

Either way that choice was going to be made whether or not I knew or didn’t. Although I knew what she would choose,
that didn’t take away her freedom of choice.

The same with Allah knowing all of our decisions that will be made by us. We still have freedom of choice.
 02
Eylül
Define Suffering & Explore
Different Types of Suffering

Suffering is the state of undergoing pain, distress,

or hardship

Types of suffering are emotional, mental,

psychological, physical and spiritual

Some physical suffering include pain, illness,

disability, hunger, poverty, and death and some
mental suffering include grief, hatred, frustration,
heartbreak, guilt, humiliation, anxiety, loneliness,
and self-pity.
 Spiritual Suffering
Spiritual suffering happens from the loss of faith and belief and lack of meaning in life. Spiritual suffering refers
to the loss of connect with god or it weakening, this can be as a result of not having any motivation left, or
sometimes different types of suffering can result in spiritual suffering such as fear, anxiety, grief, unresolved guilt,
depression and unmet spiritual meets.

Spiritual Suffering is broken into 4 categories:

Meaning – struggling with the “meaning” behind life, relationships, and the world around you
Forgiveness – pain that stems from forgiving others, ourselves and God
Relatedness – dealing with relationships, whether good or bad
Hope – feeling like there is no hope or it doesn’t exist
 Why do People Suffer
Suffering happens in this world to us so that we can get tested. Allah only allows an amount of pain or suffering to happen
to someone if they have the potential to handle it.

Always have trust in Allah. Allah will reward those who suffered much more, even if things are ‘unfair’ in this world, in
the next, everyone gets what they deserve.

Those who suffered greatly will forget what they’ve been through in this life when they are being given their rewards by
Allah, the prophet pbuh said the people who lived easy lives would apparently wish that they could cut their skins so that
Allah rewards them the way Allah is rewarding the others.
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=WmxQRZTk5fA

24:16 to 25:26
 Importance Of Perspective
Suffering in a sense is very subjective. For example, the pain I feel when I get stabbed might feel as bad as when someone
else has a paper cut. The suffering that happens to people is different person to person, depending on what they’ve been
through, their pain tolerance and their mental outlook on the situation.

What you think about a situation and how you react to it in your head, makes all the difference. An example I’ll give is,
there were these 2 brothers and their father was an alcoholic, one of the brothers grew to never touch alcohol and the other
also became an alcoholic. They both experienced the same thing but their outlook was what made them who they are.

The same with suffering. Experiencing a certain degree of suffering can be hard, but it’s up to you if you want to stress
about it your entire life and blame god for making you suffer, or if you’re going to take the suffering as a ‘reward’ and
make it through with dua and put your trust and faith in Allah knowing you will be rewarded.
03
Alisa
How is life a test & How is it relevant to our
topic
“It is He who created death and life to test which of you are best in deeds, for
He is the Almighty, the Forgiving.” (Qur'an 67:2).

Life is a test for us. Everyone is tested on different hardships and milestones,
but it is what we do and our actions and choices that determines what
happens to us in the afterlife.

We can’t pick which family we are born in, we can’t choose how long we are
going to live, but the only thing we can choose is our thoughts and actions.

Coming back to our topic of “if God is all capable and Al-Mighty, then why
doesn’t he stop these suffering”, we are tested on this life. In fact we should
see suffering as an opportunity to show ourselves to Allah, and worship and
pray more.
Quotes
Thank you For Listening
 Bibliography
● https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/may/10/faith-and-values-does-the-quran-say-everything-hap/
● https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Suffering
● https://www.researchgate.net/publication/8237136_What_is_Spiritual_What_is_Spiritual_Suffering
● https://www.osfhealthcare.org/blog/understanding-spiritual-pain/