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Sylvia Li

Instructor Andreea Corona

Linguistics 12

05/15/2022

Should We Believe Destiny?

Many people attribute their success and failure to fate and destiny, while others believe

that free will plays an important role in their lives. “The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate”

mainly describes the lives of four people who returned twenty years ago through the Gate of

Time, but no one can change their destiny. In the story, Basharat said, "The past, like the future,

is a fixed number and cannot be changed”. Although the four characters have different

personalities and backgrounds, they cannot escape their respective fates. Free will allows them to

make changes instinctively because everyone believes they can change their lives. The Gate of

Years tempts them to fight against the laws of nature. At the end of the story, although Abbas did

not change the ending of his wife's death, his heart was redeemed. Chiang implies that, in our

real life, although there is no Gate of Time, there is still the ancient adage that "things are

determined by human beings". Seizing the moment and learning from the past is the most

important thing our will can decide. Chiang’s idea is similar to philosopher Sam Harris’s

statement that although all of our decisions are predetermined, we are still responsible for our

actions.

Through three tales, Chiang wants to give his reader a lesson about destiny. Although our

lives are determined by fate, knowing the future will still affect the way to live. The first story of

“The Lucky Ropemaker's Tale” leads Hassan to understand that there are benefits to knowing

everything that will happen in the future, but equally, there are benefits to not foreseeing all of
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them. Knowing the future, the rope maker successfully finds the treasures and avoids death.

However, if he also knows there will be a thief and he will catch him anyways, he will not feel

happy when he lets the thief go because he remembers the compassion taught by the Prophet

which made him feel like a good man. Eventually, Hassan realizes that although knowing the

future will help one to avoid many problems, he will also lose the joy of the process since he

already knows what’s going to happen next. Additionally, our lives are determined by destiny,

and we cannot change anything. The second tale is about the weaver who stole money from

himself, however, his fate does not change at all because he loses everything fatally in the end.

As Chiang points out, “What Allah gives you, you must accept,” this story demonstrates the past

is as fixed as the present and cannot be changed. Chiang formulates a similar argument to

Harris’s opinion about destiny. Based on a famous scientific experiment, Harris suggests that our

brain makes the decision before we are conscious of it. In other words, our actions are not

necessarily our own decisions, what we realize is that we are executing decisions that our brain

has prepared in advance. Although we are impulsed to make thousands of decisions every day,

we still do not have the free will to choose what to do, which means we just live our lives

passively.

In addition, both Chiang and Harris contend that although we cannot choose what to do,

our actions play an important role in our lives. After listening to Basharat’s story, Abbas raised

his own questions, and they may also be our questions as readers. In this story, Abbas's role is

the listener which represents the readers like us. He asks if you know that you are still alive in

twenty years, then no matter what you do in those twenty years, you will not die. You can fight

without fear on the battlefield because you are destined to survive. However, Basharat told him

that people who rely on the future and do not cherish the present may find their older self is long
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dead when they use the Gate Of Years for the first time. The conversation reflects that if one

does not care about the present at all, he will also lose the future. Chiang expresses the idea that

our attitude towards life is important. If we live in an indifferent way, we will lose the joy of the

present. On the other hand, if we live in a positive way, we will find the true meaning of life.

Moreover, Harris argues that morality has something to do with luck, but we are still morally

responsible for our actions. He emphasizes the importance of behaviors by ascribing the

antecedent of crime to an individual’s action. Even though everyone has a different combination

of bad genes, we still have personal responsibility for our own behaviors. Therefore, no matter

how our brains make decisions for us, we still need to make actions carefully and live in a

positive mood.

The most important idea Chiang tries to convey is that we are both listeners and players

of life stories, and we should learn from the past. The third story about the wife and her lover

teaches us that although neither the past nor the future can be changed, we can understand them

more deeply. Abbas decided to use the Gate of Year to go back twenty years ago and make up

for his regrets. However, he finds that he can't change the past or the future, and he can only

understand them more deeply. His trip back didn't change anything, but what he knew changed

everything. Chiang indicates that “Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is

atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough”. Although we are incapable

of changing the past, we should repent our past mistakes and forgive others. Chiang contends

that our lives are like stories. We are characters in our own stories, and they are being told as we

live them. The past will not change, no matter how much regret, it is useless. It is better to spend

time and energy on learning lessons and making up for deficiencies. The real pity thing is not

that there is no way to change the past, but that there is no way to change yourself. Hence, in
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order to attain a meaningful life, we should learn from the past and change ourselves because we

are the player in our own life stories.

The meaning of destiny is actually how we understand lives. Whether it is the ropemaker

Hassan, the weaver Ajib, Hassan's wife, or the older Ania, they are all the listeners of the story.

The trips to the past or future change nothing, but the things they understand anew have changed

everything. According to both Chiang and Harris, we are responsible for our own lives. Learning

from the past, enjoying the present, and making plans for the future will lead us to success. In

our lives, there are many things we have to be experienced by ourselves in order to accept

surprises, otherwise, we will live a boring life. Delusions about becoming rich overnight might

be temporary wealth, but it will be a permanent disaster. Accepting our own imperfections and

growth are the steps we have to take in our lives. We should view the past and future more open-

mindedly and positively by working hard for the present and embracing the future with

optimism.

(Word Count: 1226)

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Works Cited

Chiang, Ted. The Merchant And The Alchemist’s Gate, Fantasy & Science Fiction,

2007.

Madden, Jack. “Why You Don’t Have Free Will.” Philosophy Break, February 2019,

https://philosophybreak.com/articles/free-will-illusion-sam-harris/