بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَٰنِ الرَّحِيمِ
Are we pre-destined to play the roles already written for us in this world and then get good or bad reward for the roles we played according to the fate which was already written for us? Does not seem fair if this would be the case.
Allah has given us permission to be free in our will to carry out actions in our life according to our own decisions. Allah will judge the actions and based on the weightage of good and bad deeds, will decide about our fate in the hereafter. Some people ask, when this is already written what we will be doing in our life, then why we would be responsible for our deeds? The answer to this question is that Allah knows what we will be doing in our life because of his knowledge of future and not because he has already written down the script for us to carry out. He knows because He can see us in past, present and future in time. Otherwise, we are free to act on our will for which permission has been granted by Allah. We are therefore responsible for our actions and will be judged accordingly.
20:110 يَعْلَمُ مَا بَيْنَ أَيْدِيهِمْ وَمَا خَلْفَهُمْ وَلَا يُحِيطُونَ بِهِ عِلْمًا
He (Allah) knows what is before and after them and they shall not compass it with their knowledge.
The above Ayat tells us that Allah knows the past and future. Because of this knowledge of past and future, any thing we are going to do in future could be written down. The below Ayats mention that there is a written record/account of every thing.
11:6 وَمَا مِن دَابَّةٍ فِي الْأَرْضِ إِلَّا عَلَى اللَّهِ رِزْقُهَا وَيَعْلَمُ مُسْتَقَرَّهَا وَمُسْتَوْدَعَهَا ۚ كُلٌّ فِي كِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ
There is no creature on earth but it’s sustenance is the responsibility of Allah. He knows of its destination and its course. All is in a clear writing/book.
13:38 وَلَقَدْ أَرْسَلْنَا رُسُلًا مِّن قَبْلِكَ وَجَعَلْنَا لَهُمْ أَزْوَاجًا وَذُرِّيَّةً ۚ وَمَا كَانَ لِرَسُولٍ أَن يَأْتِيَ بِآيَةٍ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ اللَّهِ ۗ لِكُلِّ أَجَلٍ كِتَابٌ
We did send Messengers before thee, and appointed for them wives and children. it was never for a Messenger to bring an Ayat/Sign except with Allah’s permission. For each period there is a written (record)
15:4 وَمَا أَهْلَكْنَا مِن قَرْيَةٍ إِلَّا وَلَهَا كِتَابٌ مَّعْلُومٌ
Never did We destroy a population that had not a term known and written.
34:3 وَقَالَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُوا لَا تَأْتِينَا السَّاعَةُ ۖ قُلْ بَلَىٰ وَرَبِّي لَتَأْتِيَنَّكُمْ عَالِمِ الْغَيْبِ ۖ لَا يَعْزُبُ عَنْهُ مِثْقَالُ ذَرَّةٍ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَلَا فِي الْأَرْضِ وَلَا أَصْغَرُ مِن ذَٰلِكَ وَلَا أَكْبَرُ إِلَّا فِي كِتَابٍ مُّبِينٍ
The Unbelievers say, “Never to us will come the Hour”. Say, “Nay! but most surely, by my Lord, it will come upon you;- by Him Who knows the unseen,- from Whom is not hidden the least little atom in the heavens or on earth. Nor is there anything less than that, or greater, but is in a clear writing.
Notes: Thinking about ‘Time’
(Excerpt from above link to a post: https://medium.com/predict/everything-exists-at-once-past-present-and-future-264b252e0748)
This is the picture of the universe that emerged from Einstein’s theory of relativity. Unlike the universal clock imagined by Newton, relativity gives us time as a very individual experience. A second for me isn’t the same second that you experience. In fact, events don’t even have to unfold in the same order for two observers in the universe. Whereas you might see a fish taken out of its tank, killed, and cooked, in a different part of the universe someone might witness the dead fish taken out of the pan, brought back to life, and placed into its murky tank. How events play out depends on the reference point of the individual.
This is possible because of the relationship between space, time, and motion. To give an example from everyday life, think of where you are right now. You are in your bedroom at 7 PM. You are on the bus at 11:53 AM. You are in a restaurant at 3:40 PM. You cannot have one without the other. That is, you will never be at a place without a time or exist at a time without also being someplace.
Relativity merges space and time into a single fourth-dimensional structure known as spacetime. We should think of time the same way we think of space; just as all of space exists outside of our world and any point within space can be described by coordinates, all of time exists as well and any events that have happened or will happen already exist, described by their own coordinates within the universe. And the same way all coordinates in space are valid, all coordinates (or events) in time are valid as well, meaning that there should be no such distinctions as “past”, “present,” or “future”. The universe and life within it is not an organic thing that’s constantly changing and morphing. Instead it’s like a video where the present moment is merely a frame within that video. And that video, had we access to it, would reveal every event to ever take place in our universe, from beginning to end. This cosmos is known as the “block universe”, a place where change isn’t real and there’s nothing special about the present moment. Considering this on a philosophical scale brings into question the idea of free will.