by Edward Moses

Created on: February 20, 2010   Last Updated: February 22, 2010

LIVING WITH DESTINY

“I believe in destiny. Everything in life happens for a reason. It happens simply because it is supposed to. Although humans are allotted the power of choice, the outcomes of these choices are long predetermined by some unknown force. Yet as trivial as this ideology may seem, my personal experience has lead me to become a firm believer in it”.

The above quotation is taken from an essay by an author whose name I do not recall. It clearly sets out a view, widely held, that in many cases outcomes are often predetermined, subject to an external force and beyond the voluntary control of the individual.

Henry Miller, the celebrated American author, expressed this idea more precisely in this quote: “Every man has his own Destiny; the only imperative is to follow it, to accept it, no matter where it leads him”.

Yet, the completely opposite view that Destiny is subject to our own free will and that we are responsible for whom we are and what we do, has very strong supporters. They essentially reject the “pre-determined” concept, insisting that we are finally responsible for our actions.

William Jennings Bryan, the great American congressman and orator, described destiny in the following manner: “Destiny is not a matter of chance, but a matter of choice. It is not a thing to be waited for; it is thing to be achieved”.

Throughout the ages, the concept of Destiny being an occurrence subject to an “external force” was universally accepted, and people believed and lived by the consequences. They basically attributed the source and purpose to a superhuman origin and willingly accepted the consequences to the “will of God”.

Lord Edward Lytton, the great 19th century English poet and playwright summarized the popular view thus: “We are but the instrument of heaven; our work is not design, but Destiny”.

However during the last century, with the advancing scientific knowledge and understanding, there has been a decided shift in Western cultures away from the idea of supernatural influence, to a more free-choice attitude. The prevailing attitude nowadays is that man is in control of his destiny and is responsible for the consequences.

This contrasts dramatically with the prevailing attitudes in Eastern and Middle Eastern cultures, where the concept of destiny being beyond our influence, remains strongly entrenched. In the Arab culture the term Naseeb is used to explain outcomes

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