Is it God’s desire or the circumstances for our success and failure?
By: Abid Siddiqui
Tags: Communism, Atheism, Social Justice, Philosophy, Social Change

If you happened to be lucky or unlucky on some occasions, do you portray this as circumstances or you consider it as God’s will?

When we earn or lose something such as; a job, valuables, or even our friends, does it take place due to our luck or our efforts? Many of us consider it as our luck but few of us take it as the circumstances we are surrounded by. We know that we make friends as per our mentality and by observing the behavior of other people that attracts us. An eligible candidate finds a job with the capabilities and sometimes with help of internal or external influence. The question is: does God helps you in getting the job or making friends or even purchasing a valuable product?

Luck and circumstances

We may understand circumstances as the responsible factors for our failure or success. These responsible components may be advantageous or detrimental, and considerably affect us at every step of our life. A substantial amount of people may argue that luck is a chance, risk, or speculation and rather can be seen as a lottery that has two aspects, bad and good. If someone appeared in a job interview and got selected among 50 other candidates, shall we call him a “Lucky and God’s own choice for the job” or he might have been the most appropriate candidate as per evident “Circumstances”, the interviewers have selected him for?

Gods of many terrestrial religions

We refer to God as the creator of the whole universe. Different religions carry different theories about the existence of God. Judaism and Islam have faith in the same and one God; Christians have a little different story about God and Jesus. Hinduism believes in many Gods and idol worship. There are several other religions and every religion has disputes within it and further divided into several branches and eventually created few more religions. The believers of all religions even call their Gods by their respective names and believe that the ways they are following are unique and the right path to align with God and maintain disagreement with other religions. Now the question is: how many Gods are responsible for creating and managing this universe or we all are following one God in different ways. Even almost all believe that a leaf of a tree can’t move without the will of God. It directly means that whatever is happening with us is the will of God. Many social scientists, economists, and scholars perceive the disagreement among religions as responsible for major conflicts and disputes and inculpate these as massive obstacles in the social and economical sustainability efforts of a nation.

Belief and assumptions

Many Godly believers consider our failure or accomplishment on our previous deeds or God’s way of appraisal. This is the reason why every religion emphasizes practicing virtuous endeavors and abstaining from unacceptable one. The religious leaders or hardcore believer goes on explaining that whatever we are experiencing is due to our sin, good deeds or we are being evaluated by God for future reward. But are we wrong if we think it otherwise? Can we call each success or setback on circumstances we are connected to? For instance, the whole world is battling with the Covid pandemic and hundreds of thousands of people across the globe have lost their lives. After thinking a lot, I failed to comprehend that how can it be connected to God’s will? I consulted with a couple of religious individuals and received the reason that the turmoil is a result of our exponential increase of sins, which personally, didn’t convince me. They tried to justify their assumptions with reference to holy books but in my opinion, mere assumptions are hard to convince but easy to believe. I was even told that God loves human beings seventy times more than your parents do, maybe this illustration is the way to convince God’s caringness for each of us.

Are these circumstances or situations created by God?

For the last few months, a question in my mind trying to find an answer is why God create circumstances to punish or reward humans or animals. We all aware that few places in African countries have been struggling with poverty. The unprivileged populations in these places have died because of malnutrition in spite of progressive efforts by international NGOs. The parents were unable to arrange even a single meal for their children in the entire 24 hours. I failed to understand why God deprived these children of having food even he loves them seventy times more than our parents do. Can human parents see their children starving and dying in front of their eyes if they are able to provide them with food? A hardcore believer might consider this as a punishment for the sin carried out by the parents. But again a question arises: what sins the children have committed who even have not seen much or some are can’t even speak. So isn’t it unjust to treat the children in lieu of the parents?

History witnessed many unpleasant incidences of riots and violence, sometimes, politically administered, in which men, women, and children were killed. Is this the way God please to punish the human being whom he loves seventy times more than parents do? Adolf Hitler is blamed to have ordered to kill more than six million Jews. Hitler may have Jews enemies who might have been dangerous to his leadership or his directorate. But did he deem all Jews as his enemies and order for a mass massacre which perished innocence old, young, children and infants? Possibly, Hitler killed millions on God’s order to punish them; otherwise, God would have stopped him from the heinous and disgraceful act. Should we consider these killings as God’s will or regard them as circumstances?

The responsible facts and circumstances

The people who died during the Covid pandemic are primarily due to lack of oxygen, low immunity, and unavailability of necessary health infrastructure. Millions who have lost their job or facing a reduction in their business is due to mandatory lockdown and depleting purchasing power of their customer.

Maybe the poverty in African or other countries is a result of the availability of limited natural resources or lack of government efforts in establishing an industrial setup for creating more jobs. It is a fact that the more jobs any country has the more flourishing economical condition they enjoy.

If an educated person struggles to find a job and somehow he fails in getting a job, his mind diverts to his luck or God’s will. But the fact may be different; perhaps he may be old or too young to fit in the jobs. His experience might be irrelevant or the interviewers have much more choices and candidates for the job

I conclude this by asking everyone to recall the past events and occurrences of their life and figure out what had been the reasons behind all those events, whether good or bad; probably we may find an answer to our own raised questions. Being religious or having faith in any God of your choice has no harm. For some, it may provide moral support and courage to struggle further. Don’t show off the fear, love, and respect for your God openly, it may hurt or discomfort others who believe in another God. Try to improve the circumstances around you to get it more beneficial for your requirement and need. The topic needs more clarifications and comprehension for the new generation by organizing debates and writings for modernization and the welfare of mankind.