289 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
289 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
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PREDESTINATI0N
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Doctrines of predestination provide one explanation for the fact
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that individuals are subject to variations in endowment, fortune, and
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circumstances that are beyond their control. According to this
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explanation, all such differences are attributed to the hand of God, who
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is omnipotent and controls all. There are degrees of predestination.
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Absolute predestination means that the individual's eternal
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destiny--heaven or hell--is predetermined before his birth. Milder forms
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of predetermination describe God as apportioning blessings and hardship as
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He wills, then permitting human beings limited freedom to make the best of
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their lot. Predestination is given particular emphasis in Islam,
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Christianity, Sikhism, and African traditional religions.
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This section opens with passages on God's unconstrained freedom to
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grant mercy or impose hardship as He wills. Next we offer passages which
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describe human free action as constrained by God's irresistible decrees.
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Further passages describe how God's predestination is realized through
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easing and guiding people to perform the deeds which will lead them to
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their predetermined good or evil destiny. The concluding passages
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describe one event in human life which certain scriptures say is
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predestined: the time of one's death.
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The order that God has arranged, mortal man cannot upset.
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African Traditional Religions. Akan Proverb (Ghana)
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I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
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and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.
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Judaism and Christianity. Exodus 33.19
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Akan Proverb: Cf. Nupe Proverb, p. 687. Exodus 33.19: Cf. James 4.13-16,
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p. 913; Abot 3.19, p. 687.
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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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God makes the provision wide for whomever of his servants He will, and
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straitens it for whomever He will. Lo! God is Aware of all things.
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Islam. Qur'an 29.62
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The Lord is the Doer, cause of all:
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what avail man's designs?
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As is the Lord's will, so it happens.
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The Lord is Almighty, without impediment to His will.
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All that is done is by His pleasure:
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>From each He is far, to each close.
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All He considers, watches over, discriminates--
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Himself He is sole and all.
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Sikhism. Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani, M.5, p. 279
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We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who
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are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also
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predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he
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might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he
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predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified;
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and those whom he justified he also glorified.
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Christianity. Bible, Romans 8.28-30
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Neither utterance nor silence lies within man's power;
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Neither to ask nor to give.
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Neither life nor death depends on man's effort.
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Authority, wealth, or command--none of these come by man's own endeavor;
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Nor meditation, enlightenment, or cogitation.
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Neither by his effort nor praxis may man escape free of worldliness.
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God alone who has the power, exercises it.
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Says Nanak, All before Him are alike--none high or low.
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Sikhism. Adi Granth, Japuji 33, M.1, p. 7
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Nothing will happen to us except what God has decreed for us: He is our
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Protector.
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Islam. Qur'an 9.51
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No man bruises his finger here on earth unless it was so decreed against
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him in Heaven.
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Judaism. Talmud, Hullin 7b
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Qur'an 29.62: Cf. Qur'an 49.7, p. 752; 76.29-31, p. 687. Gauri Sukhmani,
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M.5: Cf. Asa-ki-Var, M.1, p. 688. Romans 8.28-30: Some interpret this
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passage to allow room for human free will; since it may be that not all
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among 'those whom he called' will be justified, should they not believe;
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and not all among 'those whom he justified' will be glorified, should they
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not continue to live a sanctifying life. Cf. 2 Peter 1.5-11. Qur'an
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9.51: Cf. Qur'an 18.23-24, p. 913; Psalm 127.1-2, p. 774.
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Where you fall, there your God pushed you down.
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African Traditional Religions. Igbo Proverb (Nigeria)
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God has both the yam and the knife;
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only those whom He gives a slice can eat!
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African Traditional Religions. Igbo proverb (Nigeria)
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The Lord's favors cannot be forced out of His hand: Some even while awake
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attain them not; On others he confers these, shaking them awake.
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Sikhism. Adi Granth, Sri Raga Mahalla 4, M.1, p. 83
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Whatever you do not wish to do
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because of your delusions,
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You will do even against your will,
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bound by your natural duty karma
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The Lord, Arjuna, is present
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inside all beings,
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Moving them like puppets
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by his magic power.
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Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 18.60-61
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It may be that one of you will be performing the works of the people of
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Paradise, so that between him and Paradise there is the distance of only
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an arm's length, but then what is written for him overtakes him, and he
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begins to perform the works of the people of hell, into which he will go.
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Or maybe one of you will be performing the works of the people of hell, so
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that between him and hell there is the distance of only an arm's length,
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but then what is written for him will overtake him, and he will begin to
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perform the works of the people of Paradise, into which he will go.
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Islam. Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 4
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I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders
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in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you.
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Judaism and Christianity. Exodus 7.3-4
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The Word has been realized against most of them, yet they do not believe.
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Surely We have put on their necks fetters up to the chin, so their heads
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are raised; and We have put up before them a barrier and behind them a
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barrier; and We have covered them, so they do not see. Alike it is to
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them whether you have warned them or you have not warned them: they do not
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believe.
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Islam. Qur'an 36.7-10
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Bhagavad Gita 18.60-61: This passage appears to bridge the topics of
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predestination and karma. The bondage to God's will is realized through
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karma, which is itself a manifestation of God's material aspect
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(prakriti).
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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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Yeh-cheng Tzu saw Mencius. "I mentioned you to the prince," said
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he, "and he was to have come to see you. Amongst his favorites is one
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Tsang Ts'ang who dissuaded him. That is why he failed to come."
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"When a man goes forward," said Mencius, "there is something which
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urges him on; when he halts, there is something which holds him back. It
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is not in his power either to go forward or to halt. It is due to Heaven
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that I failed to meet the Marquis of Lu. How can this fellow Tsang be
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responsible for my failure?"
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Confucianism. Mencius I.B.16
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Is there injustice on God's part? By no means! For He said to
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Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion
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on whom I have compassion." So it depends not upon man's will or exertion,
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but upon God's mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "I have raised
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you up [in hardness of heart] for the very purpose of showing my power
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[against] you, that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth." So then
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He has mercy upon whomever He wills, and He hardens the heart of whomever
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He wills.
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You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who
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can resist His will?" But who are you, a man, to answer back to God?
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Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me thus?" Has
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the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel
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for beauty and another for menial use? What if God, desiring to show His
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wrath and to make known His power, has endured with much patience the
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vessels of wrath made for destruc- tion, in order to make known the riches
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of His glory for the vessels of mercy, which He has prepared beforehand
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for glory, even us whom He has called?
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Christianity. Bible, Romans 9.14-24
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`Ali said, "We were one day at a funeral in the Baqi` al-Gharqad,
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when the Prophet--upon whom be Allah's blessing and peace--came and sat,
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and we sat around him." He had with him a staff and he bowed his head and
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began to make marks with his staff on the ground. Then he said, "There is
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no one of you, no soul that has been born, but has his place in Paradise
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or in hell already decreed for him, or, to put it otherwise, his unhappy
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or his happy fate has been decreed for him." A man spoke up, "O Apostle
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of Allah, shall we not then just entrust ourselves to what is written for
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us, and renounce works of the Blessed, and he amongst us who belongs to
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the Damned will inevitably be led to the works of the Damned?" He
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answered, "As for those who are to be among the Blessed, the works of the
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Blessed will be made easy for them, and as for those [who will be among
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the] Damned, the works of the Damned will be made easy for them." Then he
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recited,
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So as for him who gives and shows piety,
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And gives credence to what is best,
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We shall ease the way for him to that which is easy,
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But as for him who is miserly
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And takes pride in wealth,
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And treats what is best as false,
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For him We shall ease the way to that which is hard,
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Nor will his wealth avail him when he is perishing.
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It is Ours to give guidance,
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And to Us belong both the last and the first.
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Islam. Hadith of Bukhari
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Romans 9.14-24: The figure of the potter and clay is a frequent one in the
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Bible. In Jeremiah 18.3-11, p. 1082, it is used to illustrate quite a
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different lesson, that God is responsive to human action.
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No man, though he had a hundred souls, can outlive the statute of the
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gods.
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Hinduism. Rig Veda 10.33.9
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For not of your will were you formed, and not of your own will were you
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born, and not of your will do you live, and not of your own will will you
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die, and not of your will are you to give account and reckoning before the
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Supreme King of kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He.
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Judaism. Mishnah, Abot 4.29
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Like the waves in large rivers, that which has been done before cannot be
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turned back, and, like the tide of the sea, the approach of death is hard
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to stem. Bound by the fetters of the fruits of good and evil, like a
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cripple; without freedom, like a man in prison; beset by many fears, like
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one standing before the Judge of the dead; intoxicated by the wine of
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illusion, like one intoxicated by wine; rushing about, like one possessed
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of an evil spirit; bitten by the world, like one bitten by a great
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serpent; darkened by passion, like the night; illusory, like magic; false,
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like a dream; pithless, like the inside of a banana tree, changing its
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dress in a moment, like an actor; fair in appearance, like a painted
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wall--thus they call him.
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Hinduism. Maitri Upanishad 4.2
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Time is no one's friend and no one's enemy; when the effect of his acts in
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a former existence, by which his present existence is caused, has expired,
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he snatches a man away forcibly. A man will not die before his time has
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come, even though he has been pierced by a thousand shafts; he will not
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live after his time is out, even though he has only been touched by the
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point of a blade of grass. Neither drugs, nor magical formulas, nor burnt
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offerings, nor prayers will save a man who is in the bonds of death or old
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age. An impending evil cannot be averted even by a hundred precautions;
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what reason then for you to complain?
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Hinduism. Institutes of Vishnu 20.43-46
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Hadith of Bukhari: The recitation is from the Qur'an 92.5-13. Abot 4.29:
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For more of this passage, see p. 346. Maitri Upanishad 4.2: Cf.
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Lankavatara Sutra 24, p. 398; Svetasvatara Upanishad 1.6-8, p. 398.
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