ISLAM AND FATALISM: HOW THE RELIGION OF ALLAH BREEDS POVERTY FOR THE MASSES

ISLAM AND FATALISM: HOW THE RELIGION OF ALLAH BREEDS POVERTY FOR THE MASSES

by Moses Oludele Idowu

“My faith accepts the fact that things would always work its cause.
“My faith accepts the fact that irrespective of MKO’s going into politics, and running for office, he would have died the same way he died.
“My faith accepts the fact that as a true Muslim everything was designed and orchestrated by God.
“What anybody does otherwise it wouldn’t change the cause of history.”

That was Kola Abiola, son of the late business mogul and presumed winner of the annulled 1993 election, M.K.O. Abiola justifying and rationalizing the death of his father as God’s will. In this statement we have one of the clearest and concise encapsulation of one of the most important, yet objectionable and grievous Muslim’s beliefs and ideology: fatalism. In this singular belief of Islam we have a stark and cruel departure from other Abrahamic religions especially Judaism and Christianity. It is my purpose in this essay to show that Islam is based on fatalism and that this ideology and belief, breeds a fatalistic worldview which is one of the major reasons why Muslims ad Muslim societies, nations , to the degree to which they and their leaders submit to this worldview, are poor. I will also argue that this belief or worldview is the major reason why grievous atrocities and criminalities have been perpetrated by Muslims, Muslim rulers hiding under the banner that it is ” God’s wish.”

Let me begin by saying this, if it is necessary, that I love Muslims. Sincerely and from my heart, I really love them and cherish them. I love their zeal, devotion and commitment to their religion and how they take their religion very seriously. Sincerely, I cherish them and salute them for that.
I have two neighbours, one a Muslim alfa and the other a pastor. However, for reasons that are beyond the current investigation I seem to be closer to the alfa than the pastor and if I have to leave the house I would leave my keys with the alfa not the pastor. I found the Muslims ever ready to assist and help, which is one good thing about Muslims. I told the story here of how I forgot my purse with two handsets and money in a filling station and was returned intact to me by the Muslim attendant without asking for any favour. So I don’t hate Muslims, no I do not. I love them.
However, I won’t say that I love Islam. With what I know today as a researcher about Islam, its origin, objectionable beliefs, sordid history and atrocious legacies etc., I cannot love Islam. No, I do not.

*Fatalism as a Religious Framework*

The Webster dictionary defined fatalism as a “philosophical doctrine holding that events are predetermined and humans are powerless” to alter or change them.
Fatalists are those who wait for change to take place “without doing anything to bring about such change” or those who believe that what will be will be regardless of what a person does about it. (Pipes 2015)
Fatalists focus on divine prerogative and assertion and remove all human effort and responsibility in human affairs and destiny. This is accommodated in the Muslim belief in two things: *maktub*- Arabic word for “it is written” ; *qisma* i.e., fate “foreordained by God.” The Encyclopedia of Islam defines *qisma* as “the portion of fate good or bad specifically allotted to and destined for each man.”

This belief is fairly established in the koran, the holy book of Muslims in several passages. Here is a sample:

“Nor can a soul die except by God’s leave, the term being fixed as by writing.” ( 3:145)

“All people have a set term, and when the of that term approaches, they can neither delay it by a single moment, not can they speed it up. ( 7:34)

“Nothing will happen to us except what God has decreed for us.” ( 9:51)

“If We had willed it, We could have brought every soul its guidance.” (32:13)

“God allows to stray whom he wills and guides whom He wills” (35:8)

” No misfortune can happen on earth or in your souls but is recorded in a book before We bring it into existence.” (57:22)

One major characteristic of all these passages and many more that can be quoted is that they abrogate human responsibility and belittle human individuality while exalting divine prerogative and will. It makes everything to revolve around Allah and nothing about man on the earth. Some of these beliefs already exists in the Arabian peninsula and among the Orientals long before the coming of the Islamic Dispensation, though.
All Abrahamic religions hold this belief that God is supreme and His counsels and decisions rule in the affairs of men. However, in the two previous Abrahamic religions – Judaism and Christianity – there is enough space and allowances for human responsibility, individual actions and personal mental exertions even though Divine destiny is allowed. This is the major difference between Islam and the previous Abrahamic religions and it is a difference as wide as the world.
God has not slated man to the prison of Fate. There is also the place of human responsibility and actions, denials, invocations, prayers etc all of which can influence the Divine Will. For instance when the prophet Isaiah went to meet King Hezekiah to tell him of his impending demise Hezekiah wept and cried to God and pleaded his cause. And the fate was changed with an extra fifteen years added to his life. Jabez was another man whose destiny and trajectory were particularly sordid and hateful. He again went to the God of Israel and complained about his Fate and that Fate was changed for good.
What all these suggest is that in the Judeo- Christian worldview man is not subject to Fate but God rules over all things and all are subject to Him including Fate.
The earth is also given to man to rule and dominate.

“The heaven of heavens are the Lord’s but the earth he has given to the sons of men.” ( Psalms 115:15)

Thus, man has responsibility for what goes on earth and is accountable to God for them. Because he has responsibility he can create, dominate, build, improve, recreate because the earth is given to men rather than to Fate.

This is a departure from the fatalistic worldview of Islam that condemns all to Fate. That difference is as wide as the world and is the reason why one worldview generates poverty and the other generates prosperity. It is not an accident for instance that most of the prosperous nations on earth today, the G7 nations were built on the Judeo-Christian worldview and values and those who imitated or borrowed their scientific/ technological framework; and it is not an accident that the poorest nations and societies on earth today are Muslim nations ruled by fatalistic worldview.

*The Economic Consequences of Fatalistic Worldview*

What we believe shapes who we will become and how we live and ultimately our destinies both now and hereafter. Ideas are products of belief and belief systems and they have consequences. The Islamic worldview of fatalism has produced its consequences in nations and societies all around.
Here is Gallup list of world’s poorest nations:

* Bangladesh, Niger, Yemen, Indonesia, Malawi, Sri Lanka, Somalia, Djibouti, Mauritania, Burundi.

( GALLUP, 2009: Source: Steve Crabtree, Religiosity Highest in World’s Poorest Nations, August 31,2010 )

Now look at those nations again carefully and what do you observe? Most of them are Muslim nations or nations or societies where Muslims constitute the majority or under the Islamic worldview of fatalism. They are the most religious and the most poor. Not that religion is a cause of poverty but a particular strain of belief and ideology within certain traditions of Islam. If that study is conducted today nothing would change except that Northern Nigeria would be added to the list, thanks to Muhammadu Buhari and the APC government.

Now the same article lists the world’s richest nations. Here is the Legatum Prosperity Index (2021) for.the fifteen prosperous nations:

1. Denmark
2. Norway
3. Sweden
4 Finland
5. Switzerland
6. Netherlands
7. Luxembourg
8. New Zealand
9. Germany
10. Iceland
11. Austria
12. Ireland
13. United Kingdom
14. Singapore
15. Canada
[ Source: www.prosperity.com/ ranking]

Other rankings include United States, Russia and Japan. But most of the rankings on the web include those nations mentioned above. By a common consensus it is agreed that these are the nation’s today with the highest prosperity, development index and well-being.
Now look at all those nations mentioned by Legatum Prosperity Index they have one thing in common: they were all built on Judeo-Christian worldview. Without a single exception, including the United States believed to be the most powerful nation now on earth. Sure some of these may have departed from that worldview but no one who knows History can disprove or deny the Judeo-Christian foundations of those nations.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the Jewish thinker and writer noted that more than 90% of all major inventions and technological innovations that have come to the world happened in nations or societies where Christians constitute the majority and where Christianity or the Christian way of life and worldview is the decisive shaping influence.( Lapin, 2010)
Thus we have a set of societies, of the poorest and weakest built on islamic fatalism and another set of nations, the richest built on the Christian view of Human Responsibility. And you think this is a coincidence?
It is not. Ideas and beliefs matter and they have consequences on individual and even national destinies.

*How Islam Breeds Poverty for the Masses*

Muslims are quick in their zeal to execute judgement on those who blaspheme Allah even before a judicial pronouncements as we often see in Muslim- dominated societies. Do Muslims know however, that by attributing evils to Allah and imputing human tragedies that human actions if properly channeled could avert, they too blaspheme Allah? By making Allah the cause of actions that are wholly preventable by human exercise thus abdicating human responsibility you make him a perpetrator of evil, which is a form of blasphemy. It is curious that Muslims themselves have not seen this contradiction.

Observe the following case histories to show what I am saying and the enormity and how this belief has been used to abdicate human responsibility lumping all in the name of Allah.

* On July 1990 pilgrims fell from a bridge over the crowded al- Mur’aysim Passageway, a panic ensued, and about 1,400 pilgrims lost their lives in the ensuing stampede.
It is believed that the bridge’s design and construction were faulty which caused the tragedy. However what was the reaction of the Saudi authority?
King Fahd neither assumed responsibility for the bridge’s faulty construction nor apologized to the families. Instead he attributed the event to “God’s irresistible will”. [ See Saudi Press Agency, July 3, 1990]

The question is this: God did not design or construct the bridge, human engineers did. So why should the tragedy arising from a human error be due to God? Why attribute evil to God in order to escape human responsibility and sanctions? It is another form of blasphemy but Muslims don’t see it that way. And that is the major difference between the two worldviews.

* In February 2004 a stampede killed at least 244 pilgrims in Mina. Again the Saudi Hajj minister responded to the tragedy: “All precautions were taken to prevent such an incident, but this is God’s will.” [ See The Washington Post, February 1, 2004]

Sounds familiar? Why should a major tragedy wholly preventable be God’s will? Has God any pleasure in the death of His worshippers and faithfuls?
The Christian worldview would ask those questions but the Islamic worldview based on fatalism won’t and this is the difference between sorrow and joy and between poverty and prosperity.

* On September 11, 2015 a building crane fell into Mecca’s Grand Mosque killing 114 and injuring 394 instantly.
Again this was preventable because a building crane should not be around where masses of people congregate for worship. But when the mosque’s Imam, Abdul Rahman al- Saudis visited the injured he told each of them, ” This is God’s will.” [ See Associated Press, September 13, 2015]

Why should the fall of a crane that was evidently not managed we’ll be the will of God? Should a building crane be left idle close to where multitudes worship?

The danger of this worldview is that it extricates man from all responsibility for evils because they all can be attributed to God’s will. This is what Kola Abiola has done in the epigraph above. By accepting the death of his father as God’s wish he must accept the annulment of his election too as Allah’s wish. Thus Abacha and the Military Council are not liable and free from all responsibility.
You can see why some of the worst atrocities, wars, pogroms, genocide, jihads have been perpetrated in the name of Islam. Because in a belief system where all evils can be attributed to God and human responsibility abdicated then all evils are allowed and permitted and even encouraged.
It is not surprising that most of the world’s brutal dictators have emerged from the covers of Islam – the Idi Amin’s, Saddam Husseins, El- Hassads, Gaddafi’s, Abdel Nasser’s, Sani Abachas, Ibrahim Babangidas and Muhammadu Buharis. It is all about worldviews.

A public property belonging to the Odua Conglomerate went up in flames. The then Muslim governor of Oyo State, Lam Adesina even before any investigation declared that “it was God’s wish.” Later he would set up a panel of inquiry or probe to find out “what God did.” It would have been funny if it were not so pathetic. That is why we are poor as a people.

This attitude to fatalism is one observable trend among most Muslims especially the Sunni Muslims ( the Shiites have repudiated some of the egregious aspects of this belief) and is one major cause of setback in their societies.

*The Place of Human Responsibility*

To stretch divine prerogative or Fate to the total emasculation and abrogation of human responsibility and Individuality is an error, an error that is bound to prove costly and very tragic in its consequences. Some errors do not only affect you it also affects others especially when you take decisions for others.
Here is a case of two nations to see these two ideologies in actions.
After the Yom kippur War of 1973 Israel even though she won the war and even captures more territory the nation still asked herself how she could have lost 3000 soldiers in the war. Even when they had success they still probed to see how Israel incurred such a heavy casualties.
The result was the Agranat Commission which probed the war and led to the dismissal of some generals from the Army. Because Israel believed in human responsibility even though the nation also believe in God.
On the other hand Syria and Egypt that lost more men and land and territory moved on without so much as asking or querying anyone for the loss of the battle in which they had better weaponry and population.
Why?
Because Allah decides the outcome of the war. They moved on.
In 1948, 1956, 1967 when they fought with Israel and were routed or, as Times magazine puts it, they were flogged, it was the same story. Israel would examine even when they won to see how they could fight better next time. The Arabs trapped by the haze of a wary religion and wedded to a Fatalistic Worldview, attributed their loss to Allah. Even when it was clear that they made bad military decisions and foolish tactical and strategic blunders!
Like Nigeria, they moved on after every tragedy – to greater defeat, future sufferings and unmitigated poverty. While the Israelis were re-examining their tactics and strategies after the 1967 War after routing the Arabs, Gamal Abdel Nasser stucked in fatalism comforted his people: “Precaution does not change the course of fate.” Even for an army general this belief has done its havoc, its irreparable damage.
I cannot accept that God wishes evil for anyone. My own Faith does not accept that God ordains evil for anyone or any nation. My own Faith does not accept that something is preordained and cannot be changed. My own Faith accepts the Supreme Will of God but also the consequences of human actions and personal responsibility. That we reap what we sow and to every action there are consequences.
That is the Christian worldview and that is the path of progress that has brought progress to civilizations. It is not surprising that freedom, human rights and human dignity, nationalism, democracy, participatory democracy, free and universal education, even the concept and original idea of the university etc all came and were promoted by the forces of Christianity and first appeared in Christian nations and societies. I dare anyone to challenge this.

The Muslim elites take great care to train their children by sending them to the best schools abroad. All our Muslim elites, none of their children school here. Why do they not resort to Fate? Why do they take practical and positive actions when it comes to their own children and families but attribute to Fate when it comes to the children of the poor? Is any of the Muslim elites’ children in Koranic schools today or among the almanjiris?
They won’t be found there. They are in the best schools in Europe or America or UAE. It is the children of the poor that are willed by Allah to carry bowls and beg for bread.
It is this “manipulation of religion” that the late fiery scholar, Bala Usman wrote about and which makes Islam, in spite of all its great attributes, very objectionable and a tool of manipulation in the hands of criminal ruling elites.

*Religion, Poverty and the Masses*

Religion has power to invest ideas including wrong ideas with authoritative views. That is what makes religion both dangerous and powerful force. Religion also aids poverty and prosperity. It makes people to be complacent and settled in their condition without complaints and murmurs.
This is the trouble with religion.
India is noted as one of the nation’s with poorest of the poor. Yet India poverty is caused by religious views and ideas. India has enough cows to feed the world and bring prosperity to India; but they are treated as sacred cows that must not be touched because of religious superstition and mythology. That is the power of religion.

The problem with fatalism is that it can fetter an entire generation and imprison their destinies all the while thinking they are serving God and pleasing Him by submitting to His will. Yet it is not so, just self-inflicted sufferings.

The tragedy is when a person with this worldview makes decisions for a whole nation and millions of people. Imagine the tragedy of such.

Is it a coincidence for instance that all the period of prosperity and wealth that Nigeria has experienced occured during the era when Nigeria was led by Christians even if nominal Christians like Gowon, Obasanjo and Jonathan? And is it a coincidence that all the periods of austerities, SAP- induced economic recessions and depression occured under Muslim presidents and leaders like Shehu Shagari, Muhammadu Buhari and Ibrahim Babangida?
I am just curious about these coincidences. How strange that the two economic recessions in the history of Nigeria happened under a Muslim president and fatalist?

The National Bureau of Statistics has released its report on Poverty assessment per states.and what is the verdict? The poorest states in Nigeria today are those states with Muslim majority population and where this fatalistic worldview holds sway and is used as ruling policy framework. According to NBS Sokoto State, the seat of the Caliphate and the most Muslim state in Nigeria leads the nation today not in Science or engineering, education, development or human development but in poverty, squalor and human misery. The poorest states in Nigeria today are in the North and they are made up of the Shariyaland – those Muslim- majority states that broke with the national judicial protocol to introduce Sharia, the Islamic legal framework in 2001. Zamfara who led the pack in that judicial secession is today approaching a failed state and with the worst human misery index.
Need I say more about fatalism? Can there be any better record or statement of proof to support my claim? Fatalism speaks for or against itself.

It is not surprising that in the last 71/2 years when Nigeria has been effectively in the hands of an Islamic fatalist and a Wahabist and governed with that particular fatalistic worldview and ideological framework more Nigerians have fallen into poverty than at all period of history. And now 130 million or 86% are now comfortably in poverty and the most of these are Muslims in the North.
The sad thing is after causing untold sufferings for the masses by his ruinous economic policies Buhari would leave without any sense of remorse or sorrow because he would see it as the wish of Allah based on fatalism. And the minions in the North whose lives have been made much worse would agree. So Buhari can go free for it is Allah’s wish and desire. This is the cause of poverty among the masses of my people in the North. Remember too that I am a northerner myself.

What we believe matters. What we hold shapes us or misshapes us. Ideas and beliefs make the world.

I understand another closet jihadist with a chronic jihadist as a running mate is trying to replace Buhari from the same party of liars and deceivers. Then poverty will deepen and multiplied. I won’t tell you not to vote for anyone just be prepared for the consequences.

*Afterword*
During my trip to Ibadan on Monday through public transport some Muslim men, perhaps in a bid to provoke me, made some blasphemous utterances about Jesus. I didn’t answer but ignore them.
This is one common trait with the average Muslim – arrogance compounded by ignorance. Blinded by a false sense of Islamic supremacism they contradict themselves without realizing it. They love to throw stones but they live in glass houses.
You said someone is a prophet reverred in your religion yet you blaspheme Him, you burn down places built for His worship. It is a contradiction and Islam is full of such contradictions.
Anyway this is my own way of turning the other cheek. If you can or your scholars can let them answer me and let a debate begin.
You have provoked me with your foolishness and ignorance, it is my turn too to provoke you with knowledge.
In the meantime, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Jesus is LORD. All knees shall bow to Him and every mouth shall confess that Jesus is Lord on this very earth soon.

* Moses Oludele Idowu is a researcher and writer and author of several publications – books, articles in learned journals. He is a management consultant, engineer and an Apostle to the Last Days’ Church.
He can be reached on:

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*Website:* www.mosesoludeleidowu.org

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December 24, 2022
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