Seadet-i Ebediyye - Endless Bliss Third Fascicle

as a means. In other words, the option and power which are the
causes for doing something useful have been created in him. Since
power and option were not created in a tree, we say that the tree’s
swaying in the wind is an indispensable and compulsory
movement. When Allâhu ta’âlâ creates everything, His divine
power is not dependent upon anything but Himself, so His deeds
are called ihtirâ’, that is, creation. That is not the case with man;
his power and will are dependent upon causes that are beyond his
power and his deeds are unlike Allâhu ta’âlâ’s; so man’s deeds are
not called creation or ihtirâ’. However, man is unlike a tree. He
contains power and will, which happen in him willy-nilly, so his
deeds cannot be said to be compulsory, either. In order to
distinguish them from both types of deeds, the savants looked for
another name, at last calling them kesb (acquiring). This means to
say that although man’s deeds are done by him optionally, his
option is not within his power. Then, he is helpless.
[The Commandments of Allâhu ta’âlâ are classified into two
groups: awâmir-i taklîfiyya, awâmir-i takwîniyya. The first group
includes His commandments and prohibitions enjoined on genies
and human beings. Actions contained in the first group are willed
and created by Him after they have been wished and opted by
men. The second group are created instantaneously with their
causes. All natural events are examples of this. The ripening of a
fruit over a long process of time is a collection of events (each of)
which He creates instantly.]
Question: Since man is helpless, why should he be rewarded or
tormented; and why were religions and Sharî’ats sent down?
Answer: This question is called tawhîd in the Sharî’at and the
Sharî’at in tawhîd. Many people were drowned here. Escaping its
danger has fallen to the lot of only those who can float on this
ocean or who can at least swim in it. The majority of people’s
escaping the danger has been due to their not going into the
ocean. Because ignorant people do not know how to swim, they
should be pitied and protected from being drowned by not being
left near the shore. In addition, they do not think of learning how
to swim. Most of them drown and annihilate themselves by
saying, “We can do nothing. Allâhu ta’âlâ makes everything. A
person predestinated as a shaqî, disbeliever, cannot change it no
matter how hard he may try. And a person who has been
predestinated as a sa’îd, for Paradise, does not need to work.”
Such statements are always the results of ignorance, of wrong
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