The Illusion of Chance: What Religion, Philosophy, and Nature Teach About Destiny and the Game of Life

By Dr. Pooyan Ghamari

Human beings have always been fascinated by chance. From rolling dice to reading stars, we have searched for patterns in uncertainty — hoping that luck might open doors that effort cannot. Yet behind this desire hides a deeper question: Is luck real, or is it just the face of a larger law we do not yet understand?

Across every sacred text, every school of philosophy, and every scientific theory, the same truth quietly repeats itself: there is no randomness in a structured universe. What we call chance is often the hidden rhythm of cause and effect — the mathematics of existence, playing at a frequency our eyes have not yet learned to see.

The Qur’an: Order Beyond the Dice

In the Qur’an, the concept of “chance” is not rejected but reframed. It is placed within the laws of balance, effort, and divine order.

يَسْأَلُونَكَ عَنِ الْخَمْرِ وَالْمَيْسِرِ قُلْ فِيهِمَا إِثْمٌ كَبِيرٌ وَمَنَافِعُ لِلنَّاسِ وَإِثْمُهُمَا أَكْبَرُ مِن نَّفْعِهِمَا (Surah Al-Baqarah, 2:219)

Translation: “They ask you about wine and gambling. Say: In them is great harm and some benefit for people, but their harm outweighs their benefit.”

The Qur’an does not deny that risk and reward exist. It acknowledges that gambling offers the illusion of gain — the thrill of uncertainty. But it warns that when human intention separates from effort and slips into greed, imbalance occurs.

From a metaphysical point of view, gambling breaks the harmony between cause and effect. The world, in Qur’anic terms, operates through “سنن الله” (Sunan Allah) — the natural laws of creation. When one seeks outcome without action, the spiritual equation collapses.

Yet if one approaches chance not as escape but as awareness — understanding that every risk is still part of a divine probability — then even games of chance can become mirrors of cosmic law. Because in truth, there are no coincidences. There are only sequences we do not yet comprehend.

The Torah and the Law of Work

The Torah presents a direct philosophy: reward comes through structure, not accident.

בְּזֵעַת אַפֶּיךָ تֹּאכַل لֶחֶם (Genesis 3:19) “By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread.”

This single verse, often misunderstood as punishment, is actually the cornerstone of natural order. It establishes that effort is sacred.

In Kabbalistic understanding, divine light flows only through channels of alignment. To receive without giving is like trying to drink from a sealed vessel. Hence, gambling — gaining without giving — disrupts the circuit of divine flow.

But when risk is joined with awareness, with intention rooted in wisdom, it becomes something else: alignment with timing, not rebellion against it.

The Bible: The Law of Sowing and Reaping

The New Testament expresses the same law in a language of agriculture — the most honest metaphor for cause and consequence.

“A man reaps what he sows.” (Galatians 6:7)

Christ’s parable of the sower in Luke 8 describes reality as a field: one cannot harvest without planting. Gambling, in its distorted form, tries to gather crops from an empty soil. But the mature mind knows: every seed, every act, and even every decision to take a risk is a planting. The result depends on the soil of intention.

So in a higher sense, “luck” is never random — it is the flowering of unseen seeds.

Greek Philosophy: Logic Against Luck

Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics, argued: “Luck is not a cause, but the meeting of causes.”

To him, chance was not chaos but complexity — the intersection of many unseen factors. When humans say “luck,” they are simply describing outcomes whose reasons they do not yet know.

Thus, even in games of risk, outcomes are never detached from laws. What we call luck is often the product of preparation, timing, and resonance — a harmony between action and opportunity.

Nietzsche: The Philosophy of Force

Nietzsche, often seen as an opponent of religion, still echoed a spiritual law beneath his defiance: “There is no fate, only force.”

He believed that the universe rewards will, not waiting. In his terms, the strong do not depend on chance — they create their own by acting with intensity and clarity.

From a modern psychological lens, Nietzsche’s “will to power” is the internal equivalent of faith — an active belief that bends probability through focus.

Buddha and the Law of Karma

In the words of the Dhammapada: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought.”

Buddhism rejects both fatalism and luck. Every result has a root, and every root produces a result. Gambling becomes spiritually meaningless if it is only desire for reward — but meaningful if used as a mirror of self-awareness.

How you respond to uncertainty defines the level of your consciousness.

Zoroaster: The Persian Law of Asha

Zarathustra wrote that Asha — the law of truth and order — is the heartbeat of the cosmos. Those who act in harmony with it rise in strength; those who defy it sink into confusion.

He called “bakhteh” (blind luck) a deception of the dark — the mind’s refusal to see the geometry of cause.

In Persian metaphysics, the righteous gambler is not one who seeks gain, but one who risks ego for the sake of truth. The true “game” of life is not against fate, but with the design of the universe.

Modern Science: Chance as Pattern Unseen

Quantum physics reintroduces an ancient truth in a new tongue: probability is not chaos; it is potential. The observer affects the outcome.

This echoes the Qur’an’s timeless statement: “God does not change the condition of a people until they change what is within themselves.” (Surah Ar-Ra’d, 13:11)

When you change your state of consciousness, you change your interaction with probability. Thus, “luck” is the visible reflection of an invisible alignment between your energy and the field of possibilities.

A Balanced Perspective: The Sacred Art of Risk

Every religion warns against gambling, yet every path teaches courage, risk, and faith.

The difference lies not in the act, but in the intention.

• When chance becomes an escape from effort, it destroys balance.
• When risk becomes an act of faith — a surrender to divine order while acting with clarity — it aligns with nature’s own rhythm.

Because the same force that turns a coin also spins the galaxies. And in both cases, the law remains: nothing happens outside order.

The Human Game

To live wisely is not to reject risk, but to understand it. Chance is not your enemy; it is the mirror of your readiness.

When your heart, mind, and effort are aligned with truth, even uncertainty becomes your ally.

In the end, the Qur’an, the Torah, the Gospels, and the philosophers all speak one language: The universe is not random — it is responsive. Luck is not found in dice or cards, but in conscious harmony with the laws that govern everything from the atom to the soul.

To play the great game of life rightly is not to gamble against the world, but to co-create with it. And when that understanding takes root, you no longer chase luck — you become the cause of it.