The grammar of 運命にある


> 彼らはみんな死ぬ運命にある。  
>  They are all destined to die.

Also a similar sentence from [this
post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/57302/7944):

> 2人は戦う宿命にある

The meanings are clear but I can't quite understand how the grammar is working
here. How should I understand 運命にある? The closest I can get is "to exist in a
destiny" i.e. "They all exist in a destiny which is to die".

I'm not sure if the solution is grammatical or cultural. In English we 'have'
a destiny so I would maybe have expected something like 彼ら **に** はみんな死ぬ運命
**が** ある. Would this be wrong? When Japanese people think of destiny do they
think of living in/through it, rather than having it as an attribute?




I think 運命 is treated as an (abstract) place here. We can safely say ～という状況にある
("to be **in** a situation where ～") or ～という状態にある ("to be **in** a state where
～"), so 運命にある and 宿命にある should not be that illogical.

This ある is a literary version of "(for a human) to be/stay (for some time)":

  * [May the force be with you](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/55496/5010)
  * [i-adjective modifying ある (eg 強くありたい)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/64993/5010)

We rarely say 運命にいる because 運命にある is almost a set phrase.




I think 運命 is treated as an (abstract) place here. We can safely say ～という状況にある
("to be **in** a situation where ～") or ～という状態にある ("to be **in** a state where
～"), so 運命にある and 宿命にある should not be that illogical.

This ある is a literary version of "(for a human) to be/stay (for some time)":

  * [May the force be with you](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/55496/5010)
  * [i-adjective modifying ある (eg 強くありたい)](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/64993/5010)

We rarely say 運命にいる because 運命にある is almost a set phrase.

