The Children of Israel
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[17:13]
And every human being’s destiny have We tied to his neck; and on the Day of Resurrection We shall bring forth for him a record which he will find wide open;

---

* v.13 : The word tā’ir literally signifies a “bird” or, more properly, a “flying creature.” Since the pre-Islamic Arabs often endeavoured to establish a good or bad omen and, in general, to foretell the future from the manner and direction in which birds would fly, the term tā’ir came to be tropically used in the sense of “fortune,” both good and evil, or “destiny.” (See in this connection sūrah 3, note 37, and sūrah 7, note 95.) It should, however, be borne in mind that the Qur’anic concept of “destiny” relates not so much to the external circumstances of and events in man’s life as, rather, to the direction which this life takes in result of one’s moral choices: in other words, it relates to man’s spiritual fate-and this, in its turn, depends – as the Qur’ān so often points out – on a person’s inclinations, attitudes, and conscious actions (including self-restraint from morally bad actions or, alternatively, a deliberate omission of good actions). Hence, man’s spiritual fate depends on himself and is inseparably linked with the whole tenor of his personality; and since it is God who has made man responsible for his behaviour on earth, He speaks of Himself as having “tied every human being’s destiny to his neck.”