Destiny versus fate
Destiny may be seen as a fixed sequence of events that is inevitable and unchangeable, or that individuals choose their own destiny by choosing different paths throughout their life.
Although the words are used interchangeably in many cases, fate and destiny can be distinguished. Modern usage defines fate as a power or agency that predetermines and orders the course of events. Fate defines events as ordered or “meant to be”. Fate is used in regard to the finality of events as they have worked themselves out, and that same finality is projected into the future to become the inevitability of events as they will work themselves out. In classical and Eureopean mythology, there are three goddessess dispensing fate known as Moirae in Greek mythology, Parcae in Roman mythology, and Norns in Norse mythology, who determinted the events of the world. One word derivative of “fate” is “fatality” another “fatalism“. Fate implies no choice, and ends with a death. Fate is an outcome determined by an outside agency acting upon a person or entity; but with destiny the entity is participating in achieving an outcome that is directly related to itself. Participation happens wilfully.
Used in the past tense, “destiny” and “fate” are both more interchangeable, both imply “one’s lot” or fortunes, and includes the sum of events leading up to a currently achieved outcome (e.g. “it was her destiny to be leader” and “it was her fate to be leader”).
Destiny and Kismet
The word “Kismet” (alt., rarely, “Kismat”) derives from the Arabic word “qismah”, and entered the English language via the Turkish word “qismet” meaning either “the will\save Allah” or “portion, lot or fate”. In English, the word is synonymous with “Fate” or “Destiny”.
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