What Is Meant by Destiny Here?
In the Shahrur Glossary, destiny is what exists objectively in the form of things and events. In the examples presented, the text distinguishes between the existence of death and the possibility of striking with the hand, on the one hand, and killing or carrying out the act of striking, on the other.
What Is Attributed to Shahrur
Shahrur defines destiny directly as “the objective existence of things and events outside human consciousness.” He then explains the difference by example: “Death is destiny, and killing is decree,” and likewise, “The existence of the possibility of striking with the hand is destiny, and carrying out the act of striking is decree.”
He adds that the sense of determinism intensifies with ignorance of destinies: “The more a person’s ignorance of destinies increases, the more their sense of determinism increases.” This text does not make ignorance a definition of destiny; rather, it presents it in explaining the relation between knowledge and the feeling of compulsion.
The Atlas Explanation: Destiny and Decree
The page preserves the distinction between decree and destiny and does not conflate them: destiny, according to the documented definition, is objective existence; decree, meanwhile, appears in the examples as the occurrence of an act, such as killing and the act of striking. For the construction of the concept from the perspective of reality, see objective existence.
The other evidence’s description of destiny as “existence without conscious will” remains a brief witness that requires its context; it is therefore not used here in place of the direct definition or to expand its boundaries.
Qualified Conclusion
The distinction between the possibility of striking and the act of striking, and between death and killing, indicates that this passage does not equate destiny with every human act that occurs. Accordingly, linking destiny to behavioral determinism does not necessarily follow from its definition given here. This is an inference from the examples and the definition, not an additional definition attributed to Shahrur.
The concept’s connection to knowledge and history can be followed in existence, knowledge, and history, and the connection of action to choice in the human being, freedom, and responsibility.
Open Question and the Page’s Limits
The evidence presented alone does not settle the details of the relationship between destiny, divine will, and volition, nor does it establish a complete account of responsibility. Nor is it sufficient to determine all of Shahrur’s uses of “decree” beyond the examples mentioned. For the Qur’anic passage related to the term, see Destiny 1–5.
Foundational evidence links: Destiny: Objective Existence, Decree: Conscious Human Act, the Book, destiny, and divine will, objective existence and the free human being are integrated in the Qur’anic vision.