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Majlis of Pursuit
A farmer seen from behind scatters seed by hand across a tilled field at dawn, under a sky of rain clouds on one side and golden light on the other
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Thought experimentPhilosophy11 min

If you cannot control the outcome, what responsibility do you have for your choices?

Follow one difficult decision through preparation, uncertainty, and an outcome no one could fully predict. Consider what belongs to your responsibility—and what does not—without treating success or hardship as a verdict on a person's worth.

Step 01
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Step 01

A decision with no perfect forecast

Leila has been asked to coordinate a neighborhood center's weekend meal deliveries for three months. The center has enough funding to begin, but not enough to promise how long the program can continue.

She wants the deliveries to reach people who need them. She also knows the work will take evenings away from her family and from paid shifts she relies on. The center's director asks for an answer by Friday.

Leila cannot know exactly how many people will need help, whether another grant will arrive, or how the work will affect everyone involved. She can ask questions, but she cannot make uncertainty disappear.

Reflect

When a decision matters, what do you think a person owes to the people affected by it—and to themselves?

Sources in this experience

  • Sahih Muslim 2664 — Dar-us-Salam

    Arabic-English 7-volume set; translated by Nasiruddin al-Khattab; first edition, June 2007

    View publisher edition details View source
  • Qur'an 3:159 — Quran.com

    Saheeh International translation, Quran.com resource 20

    View source
  • Qur'an 17:15 — Quran.com

    Saheeh International translation, Quran.com resource 20

    View source
  • Qur'an 57:22–23 — Quran.com

    Saheeh International translation, Quran.com resource 20

    View source
  • Al-Māturīdī and the Development of Sunnī Theology in Samarqand — Ulrich Rudolph; translated by Rodrigo Adem, 2015, Brill View source
  • Al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology — Frank Griffel, 2009, Oxford University Press View source
  • Free Will and Predestination in Islamic Thought — Maria De Cillis, 2014, Routledge View source
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