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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
" Nor is anything added unto the age of him whose life is prolonged, neither is anything diminished from his age, but the same is written in the book of God's decrees" (Sura XXXV),
It is pointed out in the Sura Y. S. ;-- " Verily, it is We who will quicken the dead and write down the works which they have sent on before them, and the traces which they shall have left behind them : and everything have we set down in the clear book of our decrees,"
Thus, predestination is an established belief in Islam. The actions of men are determined according to what is written in the Book of Decrees, so that "all thing a have been created after fixed decrees" (Sura liv. 49).
To the sainetect are the following: “No one care except by God's permission according to tho book that fixeta the term of life" (Sura iii. 139).
“ The Lord' hath created and balanced all things and hath fixed their destinies and guideth them," (Sura lxxxvii. 2).
"By no means can aught befall us but what God has destined for us (Sura ix, 51)."
It being established that Muslim theology regards all things to be predetermined by the decrees of God, written in the lauh-i-mahfuz, the question which remains to be answered is: how are the decrees contained in the Book of Fate enforced in the world of men ? There may be a book, or even a whole library, in the Cosmic archives, but unless there is a force which connects every individual soul with the actions it is destined to perform, it is inconceivable how the decrees can be worth anything more than the cash-value of the tablet on which they are inscribed. If our Muslim friends would take the trouble to work out the problem of the connection between the decrees of fate and the actions of men and other beings in the three worlds, they would not fail to perceive that the force which com
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