Is the Outcome in Our Hands? Nasip, Kismet, and the Boundary of the Unseen

19 November 2021

Question: We wanted something very much, worked for it, and set its causes in motion. Why, then, can the outcome still differ from what we want?

Human life moves forward through goals.

We want to marry, establish a business, pay off our debts, and give our child a good education.

Sometimes we aim for a house, a car, or a particular career.

None of these is wrong in itself.

But as we move toward a goal, we confuse two things: what we can do and what we cannot know the outcome of.

The Causes We Set in Motion Toward a Goal

If people want to marry, they set causes in motion for it.

They meet people, work, save money, and try to prepare the conditions for establishing a home.

If a student wants to gain admission to university, they study, seek support in subjects they struggle with, and organize their time.

If a businessperson wants to secure a new project, they meet with their customer, prepare their production, make an offer, and follow up on the work.

All of these are causes we set in motion in line with our goal.

In this account, this is called “nasip”: the causes we ourselves set in motion toward the outcome we want.

Yet not every cause we set in motion may be right.

Sometimes we rush. Sometimes we speak hurtfully. Sometimes we lie. Sometimes we overlook someone else’s rights for the sake of a goal.

Then, while thinking we are getting closer to our goal, we may create another problem.

Question: As we pursue our goal, do we look only at the outcome, or also at the path we take to reach it?

For even if the goal is good, not every path leading to it is good.

The desire for marriage may be good, but hurting people in the process is not right.

Wanting earnings is normal, but unjust earnings are not right.

Being successful is normal, but rising by crushing others is not right.

The rightness of a goal does not automatically make all the methods we use right.

There Are Others in What We Call Kismet

While working toward their own goal, people can also touch the lives of others.

While saving money to marry, they may lend money to a friend who is trying to marry.

While preparing for an exam, they may explain to a friend a subject the friend does not understand.

While seeking customers for their own business, they may see that another company could actually serve a customer better and direct them there.

Here, a good deed beyond our goal emerges.

In this account, “kismet” is considered as the good actions people do for someone else, rather than solely for their own benefit.

Removing a stone from the street, giving water to an animal, helping an elderly person, making a child happy, sharing our knowledge without expecting anything in return…

These may seem small.

But being small does not mean being worthless.

For if people constantly live asking, “What will I gain?” as they move toward their goal, they build their entire life around themselves alone.

The aspect we call kismet reminds us: I have a goal, but I am not alone in the world.

Even if goodness appears to lie outside our goal, it does not lie outside our life.

We may have an opportunity to earn money from a customer.

But if we know what is more suitable for them and conceal it solely for our own earnings, we are making a choice.

Conversely, when we forgo our own short-term earnings and consider their benefit, we are also making a choice.

These choices show who a person is.

Why Does the Outcome Belong to the Unseen?

No matter how many causes we set in motion, we do not know what will happen a year from now.

We do not know whether we will be alive in six months, what our health will be like, whom we will encounter, or what event will change our plan.

What we call the outcome reaches the point where our knowledge ends.

Therefore, when we say, “I have set all the causes in motion, so the outcome must definitely be this,” we are making a definitive judgment about a realm we do not know.

A student may study very hard but fail to enter their desired department.

Then years pass, and they may see that they are more successful in another field.

A person may work for months to secure a job, but it may fall through at the last moment.

Later, they may realize that taking that job would have caused greater harm.

Sometimes we never learn this.

Question: Instead of trying to control the future we do not know, can we focus on the choices we have today?

Working is in our hands.

Being honest is in our hands.

Not lying is in our hands.

Not violating someone’s rights is in our hands.

Doing as much good as we can is also in our hands.

But the whole future is not in our hands.

When we cannot make this distinction, we either imagine ourselves to be the owner of everything or become completely devastated when things do not go as we want.

Free Will, Warnings, and Boundaries

People can also want something wrong.

They may choose to steal, deceive someone, or engage in what is forbidden.

Having the right to choose does not mean everything we choose is right.

Sometimes warnings appear before people as they travel down a wrong path.

A relationship may constantly produce problems.

We may constantly make mistakes in a business transaction.

Even our body warns us against excess.

When we eat too much, we feel unwell. When we work without rest, we become tired. When we continually overstep a boundary, the consequences emerge.

Here, adversity should be considered as a warning that prompts people to stop and examine themselves.

But sometimes people persist despite the warning.

This is where free will becomes visible.

Saying, “I want this,” is not the same as saying, “This is definitely good for me.”

Sometimes failing to reach a goal may also protect us from another harm.

Sometimes what we think we have lost may keep us from entering into a greater wrong.

Not Measuring Goodness Solely by Money

When we suffer an injustice, the first thing we see may be the material loss.

Our money is gone, our time has been wasted, someone has harmed us.

But we do not have to measure life’s return solely by that same money.

The return for a good deed does not have to be money either.

It may be peace, health, protection from another calamity, or another door opening.

We cannot know all of these in advance.

That is why, even when doing good, we should not bargain by saying, “I did this, so this should come in return.”

When giving charity, making an orphan happy, guiding someone, or sharing our knowledge, it is important to be able to do so solely for Allah’s pleasure.

For when we turn goodness into a hidden instrument of our own goal, we have turned back toward ourselves again.

Question: Today, are we setting causes in motion only for our goal, or are we also creating kismet that will add goodness to someone else’s life?

Let us work.

Let us set causes in motion.

Let us not belittle our goal.

But let us not imagine the outcome belongs to us.

Let us act honestly where things are in our hands, and trust our Lord where they are not.

And let us not leave goodness by the roadside as we walk toward our goal.

The outcome may not be in our hands, but the kind of person we become on the way to it is our choice.

Recognizing the Warning and Developing Ourselves

When people repeat the same mistake again and again, life sometimes forces them to stop and think.

The source also addresses adversity from this perspective: a warning comes and a person sees the boundary; but if they continue along the same path, the harm may grow.

We experience this in our bodies, too. When a food harms us, our body gives a warning. If we insist on continuing the same behavior, the outcome may become more severe.

There is a similar situation in working life. We cannot stop developing simply because we have learned a profession.

New knowledge, new techniques, and new needs emerge. If we do not renew ourselves, the knowledge that once served us may become insufficient.

Question: While wanting to reach our goal, are we developing ourselves enough to be able to sustain it?

Another measure is being able to recognize the harm we cause others.

If we damage another part while repairing a vehicle, we cannot think only of our own labor. We must also take the other person’s loss into account.

For injustice sometimes appears not as an obvious evil, but as minimizing our own mistake.

In the story of Joseph, there are also things that develop beyond a person’s control. It is not right to blame ourselves for the cause of every event.

That is why we must distinguish two areas: the behaviors we can choose and the outcomes that occur beyond our control.

Let us take responsibility where we can choose. Where we cannot control things, let us not imagine ourselves to be the owner of everything.

Let us strengthen our causes for nasip, increase goodness for kismet, and leave the outcome to Allah, who knows the unseen.