“When God hath ordered a creature to die in any particular place, he causeth his wants to direct him to that.”
“There is not one born but is created to Islām, but it is their fathers and mothers who make them Jews and Christians and Majūsī.”
“It was said, ‘O Prophet of God! inform me respecting charms, and the medicines which I swallow, and the shields which I make use of for protection, whether they prevent any of the decrees of God?’ Muḥammad said, ‘These also are by the decree of God.’ ”
“Verily God created Adam from a handful of earth, taken from all parts, and the children of Adam became different, like the earth; some of them red, some white, and some black, some between red, white and black, some gentle, and some severe, some impure and some pure.”
“The Prophet of God was asked about the children of polytheists who might die in their infancy, whether they would go to heaven or hell. He said, ‘God knoweth best what their actions would have been had they lived; it depends on this.’ ”
“The Prophet of God came out of his house when the Companions were debating about fate, and he was angry, and became red in the face, to such a degree that you would say the seeds of a pomegranate had been bruised on it. And he said, ‘Hath God ordered you to debate of fate? Was I sent to you for this? Your forefathers were destroyed for debating about fate and destiny; I adjure you not to argue on those points.’ ”
(See Aḥādīs̤u ʾl-Buk͟hārī and Muslim, in loco.) [[PRESERVED TABLET].]
The doctrine is expressed in an Arabic treatise on the subject, as follows:—
“Faith in the decrees of God, is that we believe in our heart and confess with our tongue that the Most High God hath decreed all things; so that nothing can happen in the world, whether it respects the conditions and operations of things, or good and evil, or obedience and disobedience, or faith and infidelity, or sickness and health, or riches and poverty, or life and death, that is not contained in the written tablet of the decrees of God. But God hath so decreed good works, obedience, and faith, that He ordains and wills them, and that they may be under His decree, His salutary direction, His good pleasure and command. On the contrary, God hath decreed, and does ordain and determine evil, disobedience and infidelity; yet without His salutary direction, good pleasure, and command; but being only by way of seduction, indignation, and prohibition. But whosoever shall say that God is not delighted with good faith, or that God hath not an indignation against evil and unbelief, he is certainly an infidel.”
The Rev. E. Sell, in his Faith of Islám, page 173, says:—