Faith

The issue of belief in God is very abstract to people because it lacks assessment and evaluation yardsticks. This is why prayer is usually misconstrued as mere wishes of the mind.
Unfortunately, wishes live in the abstract realm of life though always sound positive when considered as a prayer and equally sound corrosively negative when considered as a curse to show the nakedness of wishes. This suggests that lazy people shall have the best of access to good things in life and when they are not realizing on time, they may resort to dastardly acts against all odds to have their way. If we now equate this to prayer, one would justify crimes been committed by a lot of people to live in affluence with influence in the comfort zone of life wielding power to oppress others.
The position of religion through their various scriptures on the issue of faith is that of a well-ordered set of rules noted to be divine as rungs of the ladder for man to climb to his desired social needs because religion is regarded as a divine construct that is meant for human faith-building in order that such an individual may align with the set of the divine laws to be able to establish a perfect God/man relationship where  100 percent of human social desires would be realized as a matter of destiny actualization for realization.
Unfortunately, this is a function of the need to keep on with the body preservation from sins and crimes and soul purification from devilish thought processes to be able to obtain a very high degree of a state of piety. In this wise, the fundamental needs of man are perfectly achieved with the tranquility of mind and well, safe and secured environment for the purpose of peaceful co-existence.
Under this condition the issue of living exemplary lifestyles measurable by a high content of integrity where respect is commanded rather than been enforced from the society, such people are promised a hitch-free comfort zone of life on earth and paradise of the hereafter.
Unfortunately for mankind, they misconstrue wealth acquisition on earth and earthly power to dominate others as a yardstick to the achievement of destiny. This is erroneous because achievers in the process of acquiring their wealth would have trampled upon the fundamental human rights of others without care which would involve the penalty of divine intervention to avenge the cause of the oppressed.

We can't, therefore, use this as faith-based destiny realization because faith has a direct correlation with destiny both of which are pure of the divine construct.
The issue of faith demands for just worship with an adulterated stand of belief in our chosen religion for it to walk the talk of the scripture for us as adherents to be able to accomplish without hitch our destiny.
When we fall short of this grace that demands due process in every step we take destiny becomes the destination for faith to become fate.
It is unfortunate that we forget the difference between faith and fate, the former has a divine connotation while the latter is achieved through social construct borne out of human inordinate ambition for materialism without considering due process demanded by faith or religion.
The parable of sowing the words of God reveals four classifications of adherents.
1)Those who receive the words of God but because of psychological troubles of the mind and the craze for materialism, the word grows wings and flies away with the tide of time for satan to feed on. This category is without a guide.
2)Those who keep bad company will run into the pressure of bad advice not to retain the words of God.
3) Those who have a negative mindset will never open their hearts for the words of God to be deeply rooted. In them, there is no foundation for the seed to germinate and grow.
These three categories of people take more than 99 percent of religious worshippers. They only carry the names of their religious affiliations without walking the talk of their scriptures. They only live in the rhetoric of beliefs that can in no way support and sustain them to realize their faith. They grope in the darkness of the world for their lives to be terminated abruptly as their fate, even though they may possess the wealth of the world, they would surely miss and lose heaven, to a disruptive effect of the people they might leave behind. The firmness of purpose in one's religion would afford one to achieve maximally a fate that may be very near one's destiny.
Build your faith in your religion based on the scriptural dictates and guide, not to live a  fatalistic life of the human construct of fate. Walk the talk to be prosperous, safe, hale, and hearty without any form of regret. No religion teaches evil.

Prof. Sabitu Olagoke

Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Wakajaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria