1186. Inshallah......Allah Willing???

“Inshallah” (Allah Willing) was a phrase I heard from my Muslim friends when I was in college. It was used the same way that we would use “hopefully” at the end of a sentence. Later on a few of my Non-Muslim friends also sometimes use this phrase to be said as a positive thing. Now this phrase is abused and now ISIS terrorists also end their threats with this phrase. Last year in a threat video to Pope an ISIS criminal looked straight at the camera and said, “We will be in Rome, Inshallah” the video shows them vandalising the church in Marawi city, Philippines. How could it be “Allah Willing” to vandalise a place of worship??? Is it the Allah inspiration for these ruthless criminals to go about conquering what they call “Kafir” territory??? Does every atrocity these warmongers indulge in have the willingness of Allah???

In every act that we decide to perform, there will be two forms of Svatantrya (Independence) we get to use. One is Datta Svatantrya (Granted Independence) and Svagata Svatantrya (Inherent Independence).  Datta Svatantrya is the freedom we have to thinking what is right and which is wrong in context to our future actions. Svagata Svatantrya is our inbuilt characteristics of spiritual awakening. It is to have an open and unlimited mind which does not depend on external conditions hence no longer emotionally and mentally tied to the action coming from it. 

In Mahabharata, Yudhishtira also gets confused like the ISIS militant about “God’s Will” but in a different sense though. After losing the Game of Dice the Pandavas are sent to forest for 12 years. After spending a year Bhimasena, tells Draupadi that he is doubtful about the intention of Duryodhana. He says, "There is every chance that Duryodhana might not give us back the Kingdom after we return back finishing our 12 years of exile and 1 year in incognito". Bhimasena asked Draupadi to talk to Yudhisthira in this regard and convince him to give and get his permission so that he can trounced the Kauravas and get back the Kingdom. 

When Draupadi placed this most likely situation before Yudhishtira, the embodiment of Righteousness said, “If it so happens, it must be the will of God, and we need to accept it.” Hearing this Draupadi reprimands him and wants to know if the brutality displayed at the Kuru Sabha where she was disrobed was also the will of God???

Draupadi further enlightens us about “Kartuttva” (Doer-Ship). An individual cannot attribute his every act as “God Willing” if he is aspiring to enjoy the Bhogattva (Enjoyer-Ship). The Kartuttva is a Bhava (Emotion) which when uses the Svagata Svatantrya (Inherent Independence) it does not have the Bhogattva, if it is filled with Mamattva (Owner-Ship) it falls to Datta Svatantrya (Granted Independence). 

Every individual is bestowed with Svagata Svatantrya from Paramatma (Absolute Consciousness), but due to the blaze of Jeevatma (Individual Consciousness) we tend to use Datta Svatantrya also. Sometimes even while using Datta Svatantrya we might choose the right path but occasionally due to situation or sense gratification we could opt the unwanted wrong path. It is here we should not accredit our foolhardy actions on to God.  

A terrorist cannot proclaim the heinous crimes that he does is in accordance to “God’s Will” and at the same time a terror victim who has suffered due to terrorism should not meekly say “Ascribe to the Lord”.