What does Islam say about "luck"?
A Brief Description of the Question:
What does Islam say about "luck"?
The Answer:
Among the people, the expressions such as “I had good luck”, “My luck was with me”, “My luck helped me”, “I was born as lucky” are used with a positive meaning by the persons whose things are going well and who do not meet any misfortunes; and the expressions such as “I have no luck”, “I am an unlucky person”, “If I had luck, I would not be in such a bad condition” are often used with a negative meaning by the persons who experience misfortunes and who think their lives rely on chance. In the community, the word “chance” is mainly repeated by the people regarding gambling, lottery and pools. “Take your chance”, “good luck” are repeated for that.
Although “luck” is used for positive, it is used for “negative” mostly. The thought and psychology of a person who relies on and sets his hopes on “luck” is sufficient to tell the essence of the luck concept. A person who acts according to “luck” feels himself in a hole; he believes in chances, and all the time he gets his heart, spirit and even his life in stress, agitation and turmoil. If what he has wanted does not happen and the result he has desired does not take place, he becomes anxious and distressed; he becomes disappointed and cannot keep himself from the frustration of that situation. Why does a person in such a situation give himself over to “luck”? The reason is quite clear. Just as a baby deprived of suck takes up artificial dummy immediately so too does that person rely on a hypothetical, ambiguous, vain thing such as “luck” since he does not know the real points of support such as “divine determining, reliance on Allah, and consent to his/her fortune.”
Although “luck” is used for positive, it is used for “negative” mostly. The thought and psychology of a person who relies on and sets his hopes on “luck” is sufficient to tell the essence of the luck concept. A person who acts according to “luck” feels himself in a hole; he believes in chances, and all the time he gets his heart, spirit and even his life in stress, agitation and turmoil. If what he has wanted does not happen and the result he has desired does not take place, he becomes anxious and distressed; he becomes disappointed and cannot keep himself from the frustration of that situation. Why does a person in such a situation give himself over to “luck”? The reason is quite clear. Just as a baby deprived of suck takes up artificial dummy immediately so too does that person rely on a hypothetical, ambiguous, vain thing such as “luck” since he does not know the real points of support such as “divine determining, reliance on Allah, and consent to his/her fortune.”
However, Islam has never let people be in a hole. It has not allowed them be drifted by worthless things and thoughts whose essences are not known. There is no place for the words such as “luck and chance” in Islam. In our religion, there are “destiny and reliance on Allah and consenting to what comes from Allah.” And the source of them is faith. The believing person has faith in Allah; he surrenders to fate and he is saved from getting confused before the events and he overcomes anything he meets by the force and light of the faith. As it will be comprehended from the expression “Belief necessitates affirmation of Divine unity, affirmation of Divine unity necessitates submission to Allah, submission to Allah necessitates reliance on Allah, and reliance on Allah necessarily leads to happiness in this world and the next”, a person who has faith in Allah recognizes Allah as “the only one” as the possessor of power and strength. He submits to Him. He puts his trust in Him, reclines upon His power; and as a result he attains happiness both in this world and the hereafter.
A person who has faith is strong; he has a courage that can “challenge the whole universe”. He believes that he has a Lord who has created him out of nothing; who has prepared the world and has bestowed him bounties such as life, health and peace which cannot be evaluated materially; and who keeps the control of not only the earth but also the sun and the billions of stars and the universe. Besides knowing that his Creator has not created him in vain, he also knows that He has not left him in a hole as a plaything of “chance.” He has the belief that his life, minutes and seconds passing from the time he comes to the world to the time of his death have been known, programmed and determined by Allah. Therefore, he does not believe in chance and rely on it and give place to it in his world.
He perceives that good things or bad things happening to him are under the knowledge of Allah. He always endeavors, he has recourse to all means and causes and then he puts his trust in his Creator who knows and thinks him better than himself in the end and expects the result from Him. He consents to the happening of whatever exists in the Divine program (fate).
However, how about the person who does not put his trust in Allah and fluctuates in “chance” and “luck”? He does not go broke and endeavor or even if he does them, he does not rely on a Power; and what happens in the end? He cannot be delivered from “begging before all of the universe”, namely, begging before everything he sees and feeling weak before the things he regards as difficult; from “trembling before every event”; from “pride”, namely, supposing that he is the owner of beings; from “making a fool of himself”; from “misery in the hereafter”, namely, losing the eternal life, and from “the prison of the pressures of this world”.1
However, how about the person who does not put his trust in Allah and fluctuates in “chance” and “luck”? He does not go broke and endeavor or even if he does them, he does not rely on a Power; and what happens in the end? He cannot be delivered from “begging before all of the universe”, namely, begging before everything he sees and feeling weak before the things he regards as difficult; from “trembling before every event”; from “pride”, namely, supposing that he is the owner of beings; from “making a fool of himself”; from “misery in the hereafter”, namely, losing the eternal life, and from “the prison of the pressures of this world”.1
And so, the persons, whose senses of reliance on Allah and consenting to what comes from Him are weak, rely on inessential, pointless and vain things such as luck, stars, horoscopes and chance and are obsessed by superstitions such as “his star is low”, “his star is high”.
1- Said Nursi, Risale-i Nur Collection, The Words, TwentyThird Word, p. 292-2.
1- Said Nursi, Risale-i Nur Collection, The Words, TwentyThird Word, p. 292-2.
Mehmed Paksu Helal – Haram
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