Can You Plan 24 Hours Down to the Minute?

Can you plan the next twenty-four hours of your life down to the minute?

6:00 — wake. 6:05 — pray. 6:30 — breakfast. 7:15 — leave home. 8:00 — meeting. 12:30 — lunch. 14:00 — call. 18:00 — gym. 21:00 — read. 23:00 — sleep.

But precision is not the same thing as knowledge.

At 7:13 your train may be cancelled. At 9:22 somebody may telephone with news you did not expect. At 13:47 you may meet somebody you did not know existed yesterday. At 20:16 an idea may occur that changes the next five years of your life.

Or none of those things may happen.

This is the position of the human reasoner: we can plan, infer, model, estimate and prepare, but we cannot turn a model of tomorrow into possession of tomorrow.

The Qur’an places a boundary around precisely that temptation:

“And never say of anything, ‘I will definitely do this tomorrow,’ without adding, ‘If Allah wills.’” — Qur’an 18:23–24

Ibn Kathīr رحمه الله explains that Allah is teaching the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ the proper etiquette of intending future action: the intention is real, but it is referred to the will of Allah, the Knower of the unseen. (Quran.com) Qur’an 18:23–24 with Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr

This is not an argument against planning.

It is an argument against confusing planning with omniscience.

The pens have been lifted

Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما recalled being behind the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ when the Prophet ﷺ taught him an extraordinary lesson about agency, reliance and destiny:

“When you ask, ask Allah; and when you seek aid, seek Allah’s aid.”

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ then explained that if the whole creation gathered to benefit or harm a person, nothing could occur except what Allah had already written, concluding:

“The pens are lifted and the pages are dried.”

This is Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 2516. Al-Tirmidhī himself called it ḥasan ṣaḥīḥ; the Darussalam grading displayed by Sunnah.com is ḥasan. (Sunnah.com) Jāmiʿ al-Tirmidhī 2516 — full hadith

Put that beside your calendar.

You are looking forward:

7:15 — train. 8:00 — meeting. 14:00 — call.

Your schedule is provisional.

Allah’s knowledge is not.

You do not know tomorrow.

The Qur’an refers explicitly to the Lawḥ Maḥfūẓ, the Preserved Tablet:

“Rather, it is a glorious Qur’an, in a Preserved Tablet.” — Qur’an 85:21–22

Qur’an 85:21–22 and Tafsīr Ibn Kathīr

The Qur’an also says:

“No calamity occurs on earth or within yourselves except that it is in a Record before We bring it into being.” — Qur’an 57:22

Ibn Kathīr رحمه الله interprets this as Allah’s prior knowledge and determination of events before creation. (Quran.com) Qur’an 57:22 with........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)