Who writes down the happy and the unhappy, the long-lived and the short-lived?

The questioner : The first is about one person, and there are two issues in it. The first is happiness and misery, and long life and short life, in the written decree. The second is the evidence for the principles of jurisprudence and usul al-fiqh, and other fiqh issues. This session was recorded in the Hijri year corresponding to the Christian year.

The Shaykh : Who is it that also writes down the long life and the short life? The one who takes the means regarding the hereafter happiness and misery, the lawful means. He writes as happy the one whom Allah knows that if He creates him in this world and he reaches the age of accountability and he responds to Allah and His Messenger, it is He who writes him as happy, whether previously or later, and he is a criminal. And the one whom Allah knows that he will not respond to Allah or His Messenger, He writes him as miserable with Him. So the matter is not like this. They say about us in Syria, "Kourji," I don't know what you call it, chaos. The matter is not chaos with Allah the Exalted, but on the contrary, as He said, and everything with us deceives him, M.
And this makes me remind you of a hadith, first to remind you of it, and second to understand it correctly. That Allah the Exalted, when He created the creation, took a handful with His right hand and said, "These are for Paradise, and I do not care," and took a handful with His left hand and said, "These are for the Fire, and I do not care." Look, we believe that there is nothing like Him. For example, the grain or the fodder, or I don't know what you call the one who sells wheat, if he extends his hand to this sack or this pile of wheat, can he with this handful see from this wheat every grain of wheat that has no dirt, no small pebble, no bad grain? He cannot. Why? Because he is ready, right, and incapable. Rather, can he from his door or not, can he reach the good, fine grains that do not let worms enter, and distinguish them immediately as soon as he grabs them and leaves the bad grains on the ground? He cannot. Look, is our Lord the Exalted like that?
There is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing. So when He takes, He takes with knowledge first, He takes with power, He takes with justice, He takes with forbearance, with wisdom, with all His attributes, the Exalted. So when He took those who preceded in His knowledge to be among the people of happiness, and said, "These are for Paradise, and I do not care," and the opposite is the opposite, His taking is like all His attributes, there is nothing like Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. This is what I wanted you to understand first, the meaning of the hadith, and second to connect it to our topic, that He took those who preceded in His knowledge that they would obey Allah and His Messenger.

The presenter : Muhammad.

The Shaykh : But the topic of happiness and misery, because in reality it is more important than the topic of long life and short life. From one side, and from another side, because this is the key to understanding. Now, who did Allah write as long-lived, and who did Allah write as short-lived? The one who preceded in His knowledge as short-lived is the one who does not take the means of material health, nor the means of spiritual, moral health, or the opposite? The doubt is the opposite. For example, does this person whom He wrote as short-lived, does Allah know from him that when he is obligated by the Shari'ah, meaning when he reaches the age of accountability, his character is good with people, his neighborliness is good with the neighbors, he maintains his family ties? Is this one written as short-lived with Him? On the contrary, the one who is not like that with these characteristics is written as short-lived. So, if we say briefly, the one whom Allah knows that when He creates him and obligates him, he takes the means of health and prolonging life, whether it is a lawful material cause or a spiritual cause, He writes him as long-lived. And everything, as we said, is by measure. This one's life is sixty, this one is fifty, this one is forty. From the Beloved, so this writing is according to the precise divine knowledge by which nothing dies. So if you know this reality that everything is by calculation with Him and by cause, it will not be difficult for you because this