“没有任何灾难降临大地，或降临你们自身，而不是在我创造它们之前就已记录在一部经典之中。这对安拉而言确实是容易的——这样，你们对失去的事物就不会过分忧伤，对安拉赐予你们的东西也不会趾高气扬。安拉不喜爱每一个自负而夸耀的人。”174

No disaster strikes upon the earth or among yourselves except that it is in a register before We bring it into being. Indeed that, for Allah, is easy—in order that you not despair over what has eluded you and not exult [in pride] over what He has given you. And Allah does not like every self-deluded and boastful person.174

当被问及伊斯兰教的根本信仰时，先知穆罕默德ﷺ说：“信仰就是信仰安拉、祂的天使、祂的经典、祂的使者、末日，并信仰前定，无论其中的好与坏，都出自安拉。”175

When asked to define the fundamental belief of Islam, the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم said, Faith is to believe in Allah, His angels, His scriptures, His messengers, the Last Day, and to believe in destiny, the good of it and the evil of it [all being from Allah].175

相信万事都掌握在真主手中，并且将永远如此；相信真主以起伏的方式安排今世，其中的智慧唯有祂全然知晓，而我们有限的心智无法穷尽——这两点是使生活变得可以忍受、甚至令人愉快的两大有力依靠。

Belief that everything is and will always be in God’s hands, and that God has constructed this life with ups and downs for a wisdom only He fully knows and our finite minds cannot, are two powerful resources that make life endurable and enjoyable.

穆罕默德先知ﷺ关于前定的教导，不仅与那种认为现实是随机无方向的、唯有无情而不停歇的物理定律在支配、既无目的也无慰藉的无神论世界观形成对比，它还否定了自然神论的观点——即上帝不干预世界，而许多有神论者也内化了这一观点。这种观点剥夺了人们对上帝掌管宇宙中每一个原子的信心铠甲。先知ﷺ教导说，穿戴这副铠甲是有效信仰的必要条件，他在关于这一基本真理的众多圣训之一中说：“即使你为主的道路捐出相当于乌侯德山那么多的黄金，主也不会从你那里接受，直到你相信前定——即你确信降临到你身上的事物绝不会错过你，错过你的事物绝不会降临到你身上。如果你死时持有相反的信念，你必将进入火狱。”176

The Prophet Muhammad’s صلى الله عليه وسلم teachings on destiny do not just stand in contrast to the atheistic worldview that misperceives reality as random and undirected, existing solely in the grip of a merciless, relentless set of physical laws which serve no purpose and offer no reassurances. They also negate the deistic notion that God does not intervene in the world, a notion that many theists have internalized. This notion deprives people of the armor of confidence in God overseeing every atom of this universe. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم taught that donning this armor was a requirement of valid faith, by saying in one of numerous traditions about this essential truth, Were you to donate for God’s cause an amount of gold that was equivalent to Mount Uḥud, God would not accept it from you until you believed in the Divine decree— whereby you are certain that whatever reached you would never have missed you, and that whatever missed you was never going to reach you. And were you to die believing otherwise, you would enter the Hellfire.176

Herbert Benson 博士是身心医学学会（Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine）的联合创始人之一。在他对信念与治愈的医学探索接近尾声时，他总结道："我所提出的数据表明，肯定的信念与希望具有很强的治疗作用，而对神的信仰，尤其对健康有许多积极影响。"177 同样，Bryan Walsh 在《幸福的科学》（The Science of Happiness）中写道："一项又一项的研究发现，有宗教信仰的人往往比无信仰者更少抑郁、更少焦虑，也更能应对生活的起起落落……仿佛灵性感与积极的、有社群性的宗教实践，就是抵御不快乐这种病毒的有效疫苗。"178 皮尤研究中心（Pew Research Center）开展的另一项大型全球研究也发现，积极参与宗教生活的人往往更幸福。179 有人可能会说，伊斯兰教关于信仰和顺服真主的这些教义，其他信仰传统也同样具有。这固然不假，但这种共通之处恰可作为穆罕默德ﷺ先知身份的证据，而非反证，因为他所带来的讯息，在某些方面与他并不了解的其他经典相吻合（见第七章）。

Herbert Benson, MD, a cofounder of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, concludes near the end of his medical exploration of belief and healing, “The data I have presented is that affirmative beliefs and hopes are very therapeutic, and that faith in God, in particular, has many positive effects on health.”177 Similarly, Bryan Walsh, in The Science of Happiness, writes that “Study after study has found that religious people tend to be less depressed and less anxious than nonbelievers, better able to handle the vicissitudes of life than nonbelievers… It’s as if a sense of spirituality and an active, social religious practice were an effective vaccine against the virus of unhappiness.”178 Another large, global study by Pew Research Center found that people actively involved in religious life tend to be happier.179 It may be claimed that these teachings of Islam on faith and deference to God are shared by other faith traditions as well. While true, this commonality can be argued as a proof for Muhammad’s prophethood صلى الله عليه وسلم, not against it, since he brought a message that agrees in some respects with other scriptures that he had no knowledge of (see Chapter 7).

此外，先知ﷺ对这一特定议题给予了格外的强调，使其有别于前代经典所残存的内容，而当时的环境中充斥着关于命定和凶兆的迷信教条。

Furthermore, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم placed distinctive emphasis on this particular topic in a way that sets it apart from the remnants of prior scriptures, in an environment replete with superstitious dogmas about fate and bad omens.

先知穆罕默德ﷺ还教导信徒，对前定的信仰与人的能动性并存，这是一种本体论上的实在，但这种实在并不否定真主的全能。真主赋予人类真实的能动性，是祂完美公正的体现，因为这是人类承担责任所必需的：我们只为自己自由选择去做的事情负责。在传授这一教义时，穆罕默德ﷺ在经典的自由意志与决定论之争中开辟出一个独特而有力的位置，这个位置便是伊斯兰（顺服）。通过顺服真主的创造意志，人可以放下在真主所造的宇宙中承担自己无法掌控之事的沉重负担；通过顺服真主的命令意志，人可以终于放下努力迎合一个不信神的社会不断变化的标准的重担。正如查尔斯·泰勒在其开创性著作《世俗时代》中所指出的，“正是伊斯兰教中顺服真主的呼召，以任何其他方式都无法达到的方式赋予人力量。”180

The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم also taught his followers that faith in destiny coexists with human agency as an ontological reality, though not a reality that denies God’s omnipotence. God granting humanity real agency is a manifestation of His perfect equity, in that it is necessary for human accountability: we are only accountable for what we freely choose to do. In teaching this doctrine, he صلى الله عليه وسلم carved a unique and powerful place in the classic free-will versus determinism debate, a place called Islam (submission). By submitting to God’s creative will, one can relinquish the demoralizing burden of carrying what one cannot control in God’s created universe, and by submitting to His prescriptive will, one can finally set down the burden of trying to live up to the constantly changing standards of a godless society. As Charles Taylor recognizes in his seminal work, A Secular Age, it is “the call to submit to God in Islam which empowers humans in a way unavailable in any other fashion.”180

如果不相信真主最终掌控一切,内心的平安便无从得到。人会永远被宇宙中相互对抗的力量所困扰。这样一来,人的信仰就失去了完整性,因为即便他敬拜真主,仍会担心宇宙中其他敌对的力量。但若坚信最终是真主使万事万物存在,即便我只拥有足以对自己所能影响之事负责的意志,对生活的满足与信仰的甘甜也就唾手可得。正如先知ﷺ在一段可靠的圣训中所说:"凡以真主为主、以伊斯兰为宗教、以穆罕默德ﷺ为使者而感到喜悦的人,必尝到了信仰的滋味。"181

Without the belief that God is ultimately in control, inner peace will remain out of reach. A person would be forever haunted by the prospect of dueling cosmic forces. This would in turn destroy the integrity of a person’s spirituality, because even if they worshipped God, they would still worry about other adversarial forces in the universe. But with conviction that it is ultimately God who brings events into existence, even if I may have just enough of a will to be accountable for what I can influence, contentment with life and the sweetness of faith become attainable. As the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said in an authentic tradition, “He has tasted faith—the one who is pleased with Allah as their Lord, submission as their religion, and Muhammad as their messenger.”181

有人可能会疑惑：穆罕默德ﷺ的教导所具有的治疗价值，怎么能够构成其先知身份的逻辑证明？从哲学上说，治愈与幸福不过是审美层面的因素。但我们不能把证明局限于那些可以被理性化的证据，也不能忽视那些接受这些教导之人所分享的生活体验的重要性。

Some may wonder how the therapeutic value of Muhammad’s صلى الله عليه وسلم teachings can constitute a logical proof for his prophethood, when healing and happiness are merely aesthetic factors, philosophically speaking. But we cannot restrict proofs to those that can be rationalized and fail to recognize the importance of the lived experiences shared by those who imbibe these teachings.

这些由先知穆罕默德ﷺ所传授的信仰，使他的追随者在贫困、恐惧以及人类在各地都会遇到的其他种种挑战面前，拥有了非凡的坚韧。因此，这种坚韧与内心的平静，构成了伊斯兰之美的另一个方面，展现出伊斯兰与人性的和谐。

These beliefs taught by the Prophet Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم afforded his followers wonderful resilience in the face of poverty, fear, and other challenges that humans everywhere encounter. This resilience and peace of mind therefore constitute yet another aspect of Islam’s beauty that demonstrates its harmony with human nature.