Question 676 - The Enlightening Answer Across the Ether, Vol 7

Ahmed al-Hasan Response:

In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may Allah send abundant prayers and peace upon Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, the Imams and the Mahdis. Our supplication concerning the decree that is to come, asking that it be good for us, does not conflict with our contentment with the present decree and the reality in which we now find ourselves. For example, I am content with the illness that has afflicted me now because it falls within Allah’s decree, while at the same time I supplicate that I be healed from now on. My knowledge that my illness now falls within Allah’s decree and my contentment with it do not mean that I know or say that Allah has decreed that I remain ill for another day, another year, or the rest of my life, such that I should say, ‘I am content with Allah’s decree, which cannot be changed,’ and abandon supplication. Even if you learned from Allah, by one of the paths of knowing the unseen-such as a warning vision-that this event would occur tomorrow, and it is an event containing harm and injury, you can supplicate to Allah or give charity so that Allah repels this harm and injury. This is because it is not Allah’s decree that cannot be changed and is written in the Mother of the Book. Rather, it is information about one of the possibilities present in the Tablet of Effacement and Confirmation concerning a particular matter. It may not occur, and another possibility may occur. Thus, we supplicate because we do not know the certain, final result that will occur, which is Allah’s future decree concerning us. We supplicate that the harm which befell us as a result of our errors will not remain: ‘Whatever affliction befalls you is because of what your hands have earned, and He pardons much.’ This supplication of ours does not conflict with our contentment with Allah’s decree that has now been carried out upon us, which is a reality we live and for which we thank Allah.