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Fatwa CenterDeath and predestination
Question
I am very confused about the concept of death. Insha Allah, you can help me clear up the confusion. I understand that our lives are predestined before we are even born; Allah knows the time and place of our death. The thing that confuses me though is what about the times when a person is killed on purpose by another person? For example, I can at anytime grab a lethal object, such as a knife and attempt to kill someone, but at the same time, I can choose not to kill that person. If I do kill that person, does this mean that it was time for the person to die or does it mean that I killed this person and that's why he died. Another example, If a person attempts suicide and is successful, does it mean he was successful only because it was in reality time for him to die or was he successful because of the effects that were caused as a result of him indulging in the suicide? I hope you understand my question, and I hope you have some kind of answer. I am constantly thinking about this mostly due to the recent situation in Palestine. I will give you one more example. If a collaborator assists the enemies by giving them information as to where their enemy is and as a result the soldiers are successful in killing the enemy, does this mean that the collaborator caused this person to die and had he not have collaborated with the soldiers then this person will still be alive or does it mean that the time for the person's death was predestined and regardless of whether the collaborator had collaborated with the enemy, he was ultimately destined by Allah All Mighty to die?
Answer
Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the World; and blessings and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon all his Family and Companions.
You should not be confused about this matter. In fact, whenever the predestinated time of the death of a person comes, Allah causes that death the way He predestinated. For instance, if a person dies by stabbing this means Allah has predestinated that the death of that person be with a knife or a sword. The same thing is true with the person who commits suicide and the one who dies by a heart attack. Indeed everything for Allah is in due proportion and every act is predestinated to happen at a fixed time. There is a term appointed to everybody's life. When this term comes they can not delay it nor can they advance it. This term is known to Allah before creating the person himself. Allah decides that such person will die by suicide, such will die by an aggression from another person and such will die while sleeping in his bed. As a result if the aggressor makes up his mind to kill a person, then decides not to do so, this means that the term of the person supposedly killed had not come yet or that his term will be through other means. On the other hand, if the person does what usually is deadly and does not die this means that his term has not come yet.
Allah knows best.
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