About Destiny/Plan

Buddhist view:

Earth expands and contracts endlessly. When the earth contracts living beings reborn in another paticular world. They live there until the contracted earth expands. When the earth expands again, living beings of above said world reborn back in earth. This process happens endlessly.

There are other worlds like earth, where gods have occupied. Living beings of all of these worlds can be reborned in any of other worlds depending on their karma. 

That's it. There's no plan, nor coming God's reign according to Buddha's teachings.

Hi Elisa. I joined this group just when I saw your question.

So, I would like to answer you with my pleasure for your Q.

Islam is based on monothesim.the Oness of God (Allah)is an essential belief for all Musims.His essence cannot be comprehended by a human's limited mental capacity.Allah has created mankind primarly so that they may know their Creator through His creations.Realization of the supermacy of Allah, although necessary for success in the hereafter, has not been enforced on man- it is a test that is based on the fact that man has been given free will.However his free will is limited,he cannot change parts of his destiny that Allah has pre-determined.

And to be a Muslim it is important to believe in destiny whether good or bad that Allah has set for us .But this doesn't mean that man doesn't have free will . Allah "the Just" has given man both destiny and free will .For example, for earnings ,we must strive to improve our conditions .But some things like our deaths and disease are above human will no matter what a person does ,if for instanc God has set the hour at which you are to die than it will be so.

But the most important Q why did God creat man?

Allah didn't creat man for His benefit,He created man for the benefit of man.And how can we benefit from Allah ,we can by worshiping Him, for if we worship Allah we will be rewarded .This is a reason in its self!

Prashan, thank you very much for your contribution and help. I wish to have the occasion to ask you more :)

Arhui, thank you very much that you joined this group for helping me, this is very sweet :)

I have to read your posts more than one time to internalize your words but I think than after I will ask more :)))

Elisa.....Taqdir/Kismet/Fate/Destiny in Islam is preordained.  When god created the universe he decided what will happen to every molecule, every creature, every leaf, every cloud, every person, every nation.  Islam is very deterministic, and every living being is seen as depending on divine mercy and forgiveness.  

Free Will....is a problem in every worldview.  In Islam, your good actions and beliefs will not save you, and your evil actions and beliefs will not condemn you.  Only the will of God will decide your ultimate fate....he will save evil people and destroy good people - for his own reasons (God is seen as being beyond all human categories and not obligated to any human values - he is not obliged to be anything: not obliged to be merciful, not obliged to justice, not obliged to vengeance, not obliged to be rational).

I expect there will be many people who will disagree with my understanding of Islam.  Especially when they know that I was a convert but have been an apostate for 25 years.  Sorry if I rock anyone's boat......

you only the one who rocked your own boat! and Islam isn't obliged to accept your bad view! .Being an apostate is absolutely your own action . I hope you clean your mind from misunderstanding!

I write this in reply to BritishEnglishCoach whom I afraid of his regret of leaving Islam after tasting the sweet of destiny , so he tries now to distorts the essence of Islam!

we believe that since God is the Sustainer of all life, nothing happens except by His will and with His full knweledge.Thus, we live peacefully and happily. We are content about our living conditions and strong enough to face the daily problems, stress,crisis and sudden calamities.

This believe doesn't contradict the idea that human beings have the free will to choose a course of action.

God doesn't force force us to do anything;we can choose to obey or disobey Him.However,our choice is known to God before we even do it,because His knowledge is timeless and complete.Let me give u a simple example,we are free to come to this site regularly or not.We are free to choose to learn the language that we like.Muslims trust that God has wisdom in all things and that everything happens for a reason.They believe that God can see the whole picture,while our vision and perception of events is limited.