The Ruling on Cursing and Insulting the Divine Decree

Praise be to Allah alone, and blessings and peace be upon the one after whom there is no prophet. After that:
I have reviewed what was published in the Riyadh newspaper, issue number 4887, dated 17/9/1401 AH, under the social story column titled "The Cruelty of Fate," written by Qamashah al-Ibrahim. The following statement by the writer appeared in the aforementioned story:
"In this life, we have no rights. We are lifetimes with which fate plays until it grows bored, then casts them into the other world. And fate sometimes plays with our tears and our laughter."
This statement contradicts the perfection of tawhid (the oneness of Allah) and the perfection of faith in qadar (divine decree). Indeed, fate does not play, and time does not mess about. Everything that happens in this life is by the decree and knowledge of Allah. Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) is the One who turns the night and day, and He is the One who decrees happiness and misery according to what His wisdom requires. That wisdom may be hidden from people because their knowledge is limited and their minds are incapable of comprehending that divine wisdom. Everything in existence is created by Allah, created by His will and power. What He willed came to be, and what He did not will did not come to be. He is the One who gives and withholds, lowers and raises, honors and humbles, enriches and impoverishes, misguides and guides, makes happy and makes miserable. He grants kingship to whom He wills and takes it from whom He wills. He has created all things in the best way. All the actions, commands, and prohibitions of the Creator have profound wisdom and praiseworthy goals, for which He is thanked (Glorified and Exalted is He), even if humans do not know them due to the limitations of their comprehension.
It is reported in the two Sahihs and others from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) that he said (in what he narrates from his Lord ): In another narration: In another narration: The Arabs in the pre-Islamic age of ignorance (jahiliyyah) attributed to time the calamities and hardships that befall them, saying: "The blows of time have struck them" or "Time has destroyed them." When they attributed to time the hardships they suffered, they cursed its doer, so the curse ultimately returned to Allah (Mighty and Majestic), for He is the true doer of the matters they describe. Therefore, they were forbidden from cursing time. This interpretation of the hadith with this meaning has been transmitted from al-Shafi'i, Abu Ubayd, Ibn Jarir, al-Baghawi, and others.
As for the meaning of his saying, "I turn the night and day," it means that the good and evil that occur in them are by the will and management of Allah, with His knowledge (the Exalted) and wisdom, and no one shares in that with Him. What He willed came to be, and what He did not will did not come to be. Therefore, it is obligatory to praise Him in both states, to have good opinion of Him (Glorified and Exalted is He) and His praise, and to turn to Him with repentance and return. Allah the Exalted said: [Surat al-Anbiya: 35].
The Imam al-Mujaddid Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (may Allah have mercy on him) included a chapter in his book al-Tawhid titled: "The Chapter on the One Who Curses Time Has Harmed Allah." He cited this hadith in it and explained that it encompasses several issues:
The prohibition of cursing time.
Describing it as harm to Allah.
Reflecting on his saying: "For indeed, Allah is the Time."
That one may be a curser even if he did not intend it in his heart.
Based on this, the writer—may Allah forgive her—erred when she attributed cruelty to time in the title of her story. Because fate, as mentioned previously, does not act; rather, Allah (Glorified and Exalted is He) is the One who decrees things with profound wisdom. We must therefore keep our pens free from falling into such pitfalls, in obedience to the command of Allah and the command of His Messenger, to perfect tawhid, and to avoid what contradicts it or its perfection. The media, as is well known, have wide reach and a great impact on people. Their frequent repetition of such words spreads them among people and makes them careless in using them, especially the young, given the danger in using them.
We ask Allah to guide us to the straight path and to keep us from the slips of the pen and the tongue. Indeed, He is the All-Hearing, the Responsive. And may Allah send blessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammad and upon his family and his Companions.