The Dunya is a Place of Asbaab (cause and effect)
Is a man’s lifespan five times his age of maturity?
Question: From the biological point of view, each person’s life span
is five times his age of maturity. For example, if a person matures at
the age of seventeen, he will die at the age of eighty-five. If a sheep
matured at the age of one, then its lifespan will be five years.
Similarly, each person has a natural lifespan. However, if someone
was immoral, drank intoxicants or carried out any similar action,
then due to these evil actions his limbs will weaken and he will pass
away before his time.
Like how an oil lamp with only one wick will normally burn for the
entire night, but if five wicks are placed into the lamp the oil will
burn out much quicker.
Hadhrat, can a person hold such a belief and is this not in
contradiction to the teachings of the Qur’aan and hadeeth?
Answer: All this is absurd and futile. Nevertheless, it appears in the
hadeeth that the lifespan of a person who carries out good actions
will be increased. This means that in a short period of time he will be
able to accomplish much work. Besides this, there is nothing else.
The dunya is a place of asbaab (cause and effect)
Will the shaikh be making the claim of being Allah Ta`ala if he has
to say, “Obey Allah Ta`ala?”
Leave alone the shaikh, everything that is in one’s possession
belongs to Allah Ta`ala as described in the du`aa:
(O Allah! Verily our hearts, our forelocks and our limbs are
all in your control.)
Hence, will it be claiming godhood by entrusting yourself to him i.e.
the shaikh?
A man was executed by being hung. What was the cause of his
death? Why did he die? His neck was broken. Why was his neck
broken? The executor carried out the execution. Why did he do so?
The judge passed the judgement in court. Why did the judge make
the decision? The witnesses bore testimony to the murder.
So this death is linked and attributed to so many people whereas
death is only in the hands of Allah Ta`ala. Every cause is a catalyst
for the one after it. This world is a place of cause and effect. The
cause of this person’s death was his neck breaking, his being
executed, the judge’s sentence, the witnesses’ testimony and also the
murder that he committed with his own hands.
This is borne out in the following verse:
(It was not you who had shot the arrow
but rather it was Allah Ta`ala who had shot.) [8:17]
In this aayah, Allah Ta`ala is attributing the shooting of the arrows to
Himself whereas He did not shoot. The person being addressed was
the one who shot the arrows. However, Allah Ta `ala is negating the
shooting of the one who had actually shot and attributing it to the
One who did not do the actual shooting.
Allah Ta`ala has made the world a place of need
I used to go to a doctor in Calcutta to examine my eyes. One day the
doctor told me, “You are a pious person and you have a cataract in
your eye. So why have you come to me for a check up?” I began
laughing.
He said, “What’s the matter? I have posed this question to many
people and none of them answered me. They all laughed but did not
answer.”
I told him, “I am laughing because you are asking about such a
simple thing. In this world Allah Ta`ala has made the greatest of men
dependent on the lowest of them. Allah Ta`ala has made this world a
place of need and want. Each person is dependant on the other. This
is how the system of Allah works.”
I further explained to him, “You are a doctor and a great expert. You
operate on such a delicate organ like the eye, yet if a splinter pricks
you in your shoulder, won’t you ask someone else to remove it? Why
don’t you remove it by yourself? If you have a problem in your
intestine, why do you go to someone else for an operation? What is
the reason for not doing it yourself?”
Malfoozaat of Faqeeh-ul-Ummat
