God Willing

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 31 Jan 2003 08:26:18 GMT
by Bill St. Clair

I am getting in the habit of saying In sha' allah whenever I talk about something I intend to do in the future. In sha' allah means God willing. It is similar to Murphy's law, anything that can go wrong will, though some would resent this mixing of the sacred with the profane.

I could abuse either In sha' allah or Murphy's law to deny responsibility when my intentions go wrong. Neither absolves me of anything. Good intentions are important, but must be accomplished by right actions and backed with the resolve, the will, to manifest them.

I use In sha' allah as a deep acknowledgment and acceptance of the fact that I am not in charge of the universe. No matter how pure my intentions, no matter how right my actions, no matter how firm my resolve, sometimes God has a different idea about what will be.

Compactly stated by one of my favorite quotes:

Lord, Give me the strength to change the things I can,
The serenity to accept the things I cannot,
And the wisdom to know the difference!

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