Continuation of the explanation of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him), in what he narrates from Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He): “O My servants, all of you are astray except the one I guide; so seek guidance from Me and I will guide you.”

The Shaykh : Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He) said: .
This hadith is related to divine decree and destiny, which many Muslims have misunderstood. Among them are those who hold to compulsion, believing that a person has no power to be happy or wretched, but rather it is the decreed fate. This hadith refutes them by saying: . So, since Allah, as He said in the Noble Qur’an, “guides whom He wills and leads astray whom He wills,” do we submit to this reality that Allah guides whom He wills and leads astray whom He wills? If we are among the guided, we will be guided, and if we are among the astray, there is no way to guidance. So let us say this: the completion of this sentence in the explicit refutation of such blatant speech is: .
After establishing , the Lord of the Worlds says: “Seek guidance from Me and I will make you among the guided.” So this hadith establishes two realities: one relates to the Lord of the Worlds, and the other relates to those obligated. The first issue, which relates to the Lord of the Worlds, is that guidance is from Allah, and misguidance is from Allah, without a doubt. But the reality of people—or at least some of them—is that they believe in part of the Book and disbelieve in part. Yes, our Lord says: , but the question arises: Who is it, or who are they, that Allah leads astray, and who are those He guides? The answer comes in the Qur’an and the Sunnah. As for those whom Allah leads astray, Allah (Mighty and Majestic) said regarding the Qur’an: “He leads astray thereby whom He wills and guides thereby whom He wills” . So Allah leads astray the fasiq (open sinners), meaning those who deliberately deviate from the obedience of the Lord of the Worlds. These are the ones He leads astray. And who are those whom Allah guides? You hear the answer in this hadith: they are those who turn to Allah with their hearts, seeking from Him that He guide them. So the hadith combines two realities: one relates to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and that He is effective in what He wills; He guides whom He wills and leads astray whom He wills. This is a reality in which no Muslim is ever permitted to doubt. But this reality relates to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and His exclusive domain; we have no part in it.
As for the other reality, it relates to us. He (Blessed and Exalted is He), after saying: , commands us by saying: . So this hadith establishes for us a principle, it lays the foundation for a principle: the principle of taking means. The principle of taking means, even in guidance and misguidance. The one who seeks guidance from Allah, Allah must guide him. And the one who turns away from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and does not seek His guidance, He (Blessed and Exalted is He) will not guide him. In explaining this, came His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) in Surat al-Layl: . These verses explain to us the principle of taking means, just as this hadith does: . Take hold of the means of guidance, which is to seek guidance from Allah through supplication and action. It is not enough that you call upon Him to guide you while you turn away from Him, even though He has guided you, as He (Exalted is He) said: . He showed us the two paths: the path of good and the path of evil. And part of His (Blessed and Exalted is He) showing us the two paths is that He told us: This is the path of good, so follow it, and this is the path of evil, so avoid it.
Just as this hadith sets for us the means of guidance, which is to ask Allah (Mighty and Majestic) with our tongues and hearts to guide us to the truth He has revealed to us from the Noble Qur’an, and for us to respond to His call and act upon His guidance (Blessed and Exalted is He), so just as this hadith establishes this principle—the principle of taking means—so too do the preceding verses: . These are the ones whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) guides, not the reverse, .
If we know this reality, which is summarized by the fact that Allah guides those who turn to Him and seek guidance from Him, and leads astray those who turn away from Him; if we know this reality, it becomes easy for us to understand many of the verses and many of the Prophetic hadiths. The best that can be said about some people regarding them is that they did not understand them well, but in reality, they misunderstood them to the greatest extent. An example of this is the famous hadith... that famous hadith which says: When Allah (Mighty and Majestic) created the creation in the realm of the spermatic fluid, He took a handful with His right hand and said: “These are for Paradise, and I do not care,” and He took a handful with His left hand—and as in some hadiths: —and He took a handful with His left hand and said: “These are for the Fire, and I do not care.”
Some of those who hold to compulsion say: So the matter is finished. I am either from this handful, the right-hand handful, meaning he is from the people of the right, from Paradise, or I am from this other handful. If I am from the people of the other handful, righteous deeds will never benefit me at all, and if I am from the people of the first handful, righteous deeds will never harm me at all. So why do we work? The answer came in the hadith: . So the people of Paradise enter Paradise by their deeds, and the people of the Fire enter the Fire by their deeds. And our Lord (Mighty and Majestic) explicitly stated something of this, saying: , and the other verse: . He did not say: “By what was written for you,” or “Whoever is from the right-hand handful is from the people of Paradise, and whoever is from the left-hand handful is from the people of the Fire.”
In the context of clarifying this hadith of the two handfuls, it is obligatory for us to remind that Allah (Mighty and Majestic): . So many people, due to their heedlessness or ignorance or misguidance, imagine that the grasp of Allah is like the grasp of one of His servants. So any person today, for example, from the feeders or sellers of chickpeas; these people, for example, divide the chickpeas into two: the male chickpeas and the small chickpeas. How do they distinguish them? As you know, they put them in a sieve and go back and forth. So what falls through is a sign that it is small in size and is sold for a price, and what remains on the sieve is the male. This is due to the incapacity of the human being. But if the human being were given the attribute of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), there would be no need for all this effort. He would take a handful from the pile containing, for example, this chickpea, and what he wants would come out in his grasp. What does he want? The males. They come out in his right hand. What does he want, the small or the broken ones? They come out in his left hand. But the human being is incapable and unable. But the Lord of the Worlds is not so. His grasp is accompanied by all the attributes of Allah, such as power, such as knowledge, such as wisdom, justice. So Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is a Self possessed of all attributes of perfection, and these attributes do not separate from His Self (Blessed and Exalted is He) in any action that issues from Him (Mighty and Majestic). Among these actions that issued from Him are these two handfuls. So when He took from that world which numbers millions, billions, millions, and so on, of humans from the day He decreed Adam until the Hour, this huge number, when Allah took a handful with His right hand, without a doubt we must imagine that this handful is accompanied by power, knowledge, wisdom, justice, and all attributes of perfection.
So, when Allah took the first handful, He only took those whom Allah knew that when they are sent down to the world and become sound human beings, and the warnings and the prophets and messengers come to them, calling them to obey Allah, they will respond. So this handful encompassed only those whom it was predestined in the knowledge of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that they would respond to His obedience. So this handful was done with wisdom, knowledge, and justice, and the opposite is the opposite: the other handful encompassed only those whom it was predestined in the knowledge of Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that they would disobey Him (Blessed and Exalted is He). So this handful is not a matter of chaos; meaning, it is not random, as they say, a coincidence, luck, or fate, where whoever comes out on the right is from the people of Paradise, and whoever comes out on the left is from the people of the Fire. Far be it from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) that it be so, .
So every hadith and every verse must be interpreted in light of the principle of taking means. Allah (Mighty and Majestic) has made a cause for every thing, so every effect has a cause. The cause of entering Paradise is faith; and therefore He (peace and blessings be upon him) said, when he sent Abu Bakr al-Siddiq before the Farewell Pilgrimage to the season, and ordered him to announce words, among which was: that no soul enters Paradise except a Muslim or a believer soul. So Paradise is by cause, which is faith and righteous deeds, and the Fire is by cause, which is disbelief and evil deeds. Here Allah (Mighty and Majestic) reminds His servants that we are poor and He is the Rich, that we are weak and He is the Strong, that we are lost, so we must seek guidance from Allah, for He guides us, .
As for the idea that a person lives the entire eternity and does not stand up to Allah, nor seek His guidance, and then says: if He has written me among the people of happiness, then I am among the people of happiness, and if He has written me among the people of misery, then I am among the people of misery; this is misguidance beyond which there is no misguidance; for he denies the principle of taking means.
And among the wonders of people today is that in matters of faith and Islam, they are Jabriyyah (determinists), and in matters of life and livelihood, they are Mu'tazilah who do not believe in divine decree. So they strive on earth with intense effort; why? Because they know by experience that if he does not leave his house and run after his provision, the provision will not come to him. But more important than this provision is the provision of Paradise, which he thinks comes to him by random chance; if he is from the right handful, he is from the people of Paradise, otherwise he is from the people of the Fire!!
These beliefs are, in reality, among the greatest causes that led the Muslims to this lowly state in which they have fallen; because they reversed matters. In what requires taking means, they left off action. As if a person today—and this also exists—says: if Allah wills to help us against the Jews, He will help us, and there is no need to take the means that Allah ordered in many verses, such as the famous verse: to the end of the verse.
And this is also what many of the later scholars fell into; there are no "special ones" in the Islamic Ummah. All it has is delay until Isa (peace be upon him) descends from the sky and meets the Mahdi (peace be upon him); so he kills the Dajjal, and they expel the Jews from Bayt al-Maqdis. So they judged themselves as dead and that they will not live except by the descent of Isa. Where did this come to them? From leaving the means of life, the means of honor and happiness in this world before the Hereafter. As for the happiness that has no connection to the afterlife, they are—as you heard—Mu'tazilah; they take all the means. But as for the means that honor them in this world before the Hereafter, they are dead in that. So we must take a lesson from this hadith, especially in His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He): .
So my advice to you is that you do not forget this rule, the rule of taking the means of life; whether they are worldly or otherworldly. And among these means is that we ask Allah (Blessed and Exalted is He), humbly and supplicating, to make us among His guided servants. And the completion of that is that we study His Shari'ah, His Book and the hadith of His Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him); for by that He guided us, as He (peace and blessings be upon him) said. And with that I conclude this lesson with the authentic, famous hadith: .
And with this amount is sufficient, and praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds. And perhaps tomorrow, if Allah wills, we will complete this noble hadith with explanation and clarification.