Explanation of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): “O My servants, it is only your deeds that I record for you, and then I give you them in full.”

The Shaykh : .
This hadith, or the conclusion of this hadith, in reality links a person’s happiness and misery to his deeds. He says: I record them for you, the One who granted him success for this good, and if he finds otherwise, meaning something that is evil, . This is a clear restriction in terms of the Arabic expression; that is, one does not blame divine decree—for example, one does not say that Allah wrote happiness, misery, wretchedness, and poverty for him, and so on. If he finds something in his deeds that he does not like because it does not please Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), whom does he direct the blame to? Whom does he direct the blame to? To himself; because, as He (the Exalted) said: “earned” Is this the verse? , “earned” ; therefore, regarding a person’s happiness and misery, it is not permissible for a Muslim to look to Allah’s divine decree and destiny in this matter; because Allah’s divine decree and destiny is one of the matters of Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), whereas our happiness and misery, all of that returns to our deeds; and therefore He (the Exalted) said: .
So deeds, then, are the cause of happiness and they are the cause of misery; and therefore He (the Exalted) said, as we mentioned in a previous lesson: , .
Here there is a hadith that many people imagine contradicts these two verses, which indicate that entering Paradise is only by righteous deeds, and that happiness is by righteous deeds, and its opposite, misery, is by evil deeds. That hadith which I am referring to is his saying (peace and blessings be upon him): . They said: And you, O Messenger of Allah? He said: . It appears to some people that this hadith contradicts the two previous verses; for they explicitly state that entering Paradise is by deeds, whereas this hadith explicitly states that none of us enters Paradise by his deed; how is this? Even the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) does not enter Paradise by his deed?
The reconciliation between the verse or the two verses and this hadith is that we know a scientific expression used by some of the meticulous scholars. This scientific expression is that they named the ba in the verse: the ba of causality, and they named the ba in the Prophetic hadith: the ba of price. And by observing the difference between the two bas, the difficulty is resolved.
And the clarification of this is: by the cause of your deeds, this is the meaning of the verse. meaning: by the price of his deed. And the result is that your deeds are not suitable as a price for entering Paradise. The meaning of the hadith is that your deeds are not suitable as a price for entering Paradise, but your deeds are a cause for entering Paradise. An approximation of this is if a healthy young man has a very large garden and announces that whoever wants to enter this garden—that is, the orchard—and eat from all the fruits in it, pairs of every kind, let him pay a penny and enjoy entering the garden and staying in it as long as he wishes; would this penny be the price of entering the garden? No, but the owner of the garden... the cause that justifies people entering the garden is this single penny; so this is the meaning of the scholars’ statement that the ba in the verse is the ba of causality and the ba in the hadith is the ba of price. So based on the ba of causality he said: enter Paradise, and based on the ba of price he said: . This detail is a clear and evident matter with no difficulty in it.
And there is a second meaning by which the verse and the hadith are also reconciled. The second meaning, which is what the majority of the explainers of the hadith mention: ; that is, if it were not for the favor of Allah and His mercy, your righteous deed that caused you to enter Paradise would not have been. This is another interpretation in the way of reconciling the verse and the hadith. Allah says: , and what blessing is greater than the servant’s faith in his Lord and his obedience to Him? No doubt, if Allah says: , and among the greatest blessings from Allah upon His servants is their righteous deed by which they enter Paradise; so entering Paradise was originally the favor of Allah and His mercy upon His servants; therefore, let no one be hasty to say: the hadith contradicts the verse, absolutely not = -- and upon you be the peace and mercy and blessings of Allah -- = always the hadith does not contradict the verse at all, but rather it brings something new and something additional to what the verse contained, as you see here; so the verse established that entering Paradise is by righteous deeds, and the purpose of that is to refute the doctrine of compulsion, and the purpose of the verse is to refute those who rely on what Allah has decreed previously of happiness or misery. Perhaps someone might say: they are two matters, there is no third; either happiness or misery, and since happiness has been decided, and since misery has been decided; why do we work? We rely on divine decree. So this verse comes among the many texts to refute this false reliance on divine decree regarding happiness or misery, and it says: , so righteous deeds are the cause of entering Paradise; so whoever wants to enter Paradise must bring this cause. So if a person believes in this verse first and understands its meaning second; his reliance on divine decree and destiny regarding happiness or misery is refuted; because if he wants to enter Paradise, he must present the cause which Allah linked to entering Paradise in this verse; so this is the purpose of the noble verse which says that entering Paradise is by righteous deeds.
As for the purpose of the hadith, it is something else. The purpose of the hadith which says: is to draw the servant’s attention to another reality which is different from the first reality. The first reality says: righteous deeds are necessary for entering Paradise; so there is no reliance on what has been written for a person of happiness or misery; because if happiness was written for him, the happiness intended is righteous deeds; and therefore he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: , so if he is among the people of happiness, he will do the deeds of the people of happiness, and if he is among the people of misery, he will do the deeds of the people of misery. So if a person does the deeds of the people of misery, he knows that he will not attain Paradise; because Paradise has a cause for entering it, which is righteous deeds; so this is the reality that the Qur’an spoke about, and it is sufficient and cures from this aspect; the aspect of refuting reliance on divine decree and destiny.
As for the hadith, it deals with the other issue, an issue that is completely independent and separate from the first issue. The hadith draws attention to the fact that this righteous deed by which you will enter Paradise, if it is decreed for you, is from the favor of Allah (Mighty and Majestic); so do not be deluded by yourself, do not say: I and I, I work, and I am a believer, and I did it, for as He (the Exalted) said: .