Reconciling the verse “Enter Paradise because of what you used to do” with the hadith “None of you will enter Paradise by his deeds.”

The Shaykh : How do we reconcile this hadith: , with this verse: ? Some people assume there is a clear contradiction between the verse and the hadith. The answer is that there is absolutely no contradiction; the “ba” (preposition) in the verse is different from the “ba” in the hadith. The “ba” in the verse is a causal “ba,” and the causal “ba” is well known in language and in the Shari'ah. As for the “ba” in the hadith, some of the meticulous scholars call it the “ba” of price (thumaniyyah). “Thumaniyyah” means price, i.e., the work that a person performs is not the price of Paradise, because the eternal bliss in Paradise is not suitable to be the price for which a person who believes in Allah and worships Allah for sixty years, a hundred years, a thousand years, or a million years would pay. However, the key to entering Paradise is necessary, and that is work. So we can derive the following result: entering Paradise is by work, and its beginning is faith. But enjoying Paradise is not the price of this work; rather, it is from the favor and mercy of Allah. This is especially true if we consider some reports that describe the vast dominion a person has, which the mind cannot imagine. This vast dominion, which the mind cannot imagine, is for the person with the lowest level of faith, as came from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him): ; he crawls, crawling, unable to walk properly, exhausted, having come out of the Fire, and having become charcoal. He walks from the Fire, finding his way to Paradise. ; he repeats the request, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) grants him the request again. He goes to this second tree and eats and drinks, as mentioned before. , he repeats the request, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) responds to the request again. , and perhaps in the hadith, he hears the speech of the people of Paradise and their bliss, and hears the singing of the houris: “We are the immortal ones, so we do not die; we are the comfortable ones, so we do not suffer,” and the like. , so the servant hardly believes in this divine favor. Here is the point: ; this is the last person to come out of the Fire. “Enter Paradise, and you will have in it the like of the world and ten times more.” Here, “the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) laughed.” So the narrator of the hadith, Abdullah ibn Mas'ud, asked him: “Why did you laugh, O Messenger of Allah?” He said: “Because when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said to this servant: ‘Enter Paradise,’ he did not believe it. He said: ‘O my Lord, are you mocking me, and you are the Lord? You tell me: Enter Paradise, and you will have in it the like of the world and ten times more.’ So Allah laughed at His servant, so His Prophet laughed at the laughter of his Lord, so Ibn Mas'ud laughed at the laughter of his Prophet.” Then some of the hadith scholars inherited this hadith as a chain of laughter in various hadiths, called the chained hadiths (musalsal). Each one says what the one before him said until it reaches the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him). For example, “He took my hand and shook it and said to me: So-and-so told me. He took my hand and shook it.” This is called the hadith of the handshake. And so on. Here, the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) laughed because Allah laughed in amazement at His servant: how did he not believe in his Lord’s favor which He bestowed upon him? If such a person, who has the least faith, meaning he has the weight of a speck of faith in his heart, and this speck took him out of the Fire and put him into Paradise, this is the price of this long and wide Paradise. This is impossible. So: . They said: “And you?” The most devoted of the servants. , . So, the “ba” in the hadith, according to the application of the scholars, is the “ba” of price, meaning your work is not the price of Paradise. As for the “ba” in the verse, it is a “ba” known in language, the causal “ba.” So the cause for entering Paradise is necessary, and that is faith and the work that this faith requires. When a person enters this Paradise and enjoys what is in it of enjoyment, as came in the hadith: . All of this is by the favor and mercy of Allah. And I affirm this with a very simple example: a noble man has a city with all kinds of beautiful green trees and various sweet fruits. He announces to the people that whoever wants to enter this garden, and it is linguistically correct to call it a Paradise, whoever wants to enter this Paradise must pay, for example, a lira or a pound or whatever the agreed currency is. So when he enters, he sees there what he cannot pay the price for. Just by enjoying the view and smelling the air filled with fragrant scents, his entry requires him to pay the price of entry, but his enjoyment of that Paradise is by the favor of that master; he does not deserve it with the price he offered. This is an approximate matter. When the servant enjoys the bliss of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) in His Paradise, that is by the favor and mercy of Allah. But as a cause that is necessary, it is what the person presents. Therefore, He said: ; and therefore, He forbade it to the disbelievers. Why? Because they did not engage in the cause that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) made the cause for entering Paradise.
So, in summary: the divine decree is a truth, and belief in it is obligatory. But this decree is precise in its estimation, such that it records the events that happen to a person according to their facts and realities. The work that a person does by choice is recorded on him by choice, and the work that a person does by compulsion is recorded on him by compulsion. For the first type, there is “do” and “do not do,” and there is reward and punishment. For the second type, there is no command or prohibition, and there is no reward or punishment, because he is compelled. Compulsion and obligation do not coexist. Choice is the point of divine obligation (Blessed and Exalted is He). In this way, we reconcile all the texts of the Book and the Sunnah, so we do not fall into what the Mu'tazilah fell into, which is denying the divine decree, because it is a condition of faith. And we do not fall into what the Asha'irah fell into when they interpreted many of the texts until they drowned and said that this is the great misguidance for Allah (Mighty and Majestic) to punish the obedient and reward the disobedient. Because they first imagined that the divine decree means compulsion, so the person is compelled, and Allah (Mighty and Majestic) punishes him. They said He should do what He wills and act in His dominion as He wills, and they do not imagine that injustice would occur from Him or that He would be able to do it, because they do not imagine this injustice. By our belief first in the divine decree, we differed from the Mu'tazilah who denied the divine decree, so we believed in the verses of Allah and the hadiths of the Messenger of Allah, and we were with the Salaf in this. Then, by our denial of compulsion which invalidates obligation, we differed from the Asha'irah who understood that the divine decree means compulsion, and then they fell into those numerous deviations that are countless. And so, the correct understanding always leads its holder on guidance and in the light of his Lord. And the foundation of this correct understanding, as we always say, is that we return to what our righteous predecessors were upon. Our righteous predecessors did not say compulsion, but rather those who came after them, like the Mu'tazilah, said it. But they did not believe in compulsion; rather, they denied the divine decree. And like the Asha'irah who understood from the divine decree compulsion, then they drowned in it and did not come out until today, even with the passage of these long years, they affirm belief in the divine decree on the basis that it is compulsion, until they say that the acquisition of the person, all of it, his blackness, his whiteness, his complexion, does he have any will in it? As we said at the beginning of the speech, of course, he has no will. This is the acquisition in their view, and this is the very falsehood. And praise be to Allah who guided us to this, and we would not have been guided except that Allah guided us.