What is your opinion of the one who says: If guidance is decreed, then there is no need to act upon the acts of obedience?

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The questioner : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon the noblest of the prophets and messengers. In the hadith of Abdullah ibn Mas'ud in *Sahih al-Bukhari*, part of the hadith is the saying of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him)

It is He, Allah, there is no god but Him. Indeed, among you are those who act with the deeds of the people of the Fire until there is nothing between them and it but an arm's length.

هو الله الذي لا إله عيره ، إن منكم من يعمل بعمل أهل النار حتى ما يكون بينه وبينها إلا ذراع

The hadith: There are among the young people those who say: If guidance is decreed or dependent on the will, then there is no need for me to do good deeds or to adhere to the obedience of Allah (Mighty and Majestic). What is your opinion, O Shaykh?

The Shaykh : When the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) informed his companions that:

No one is there whose place in Paradise and his place in the Fire has not been written. They said: O Messenger of Allah, should we not leave off action and rely on the record? He said: Act, for everyone is facilitated for what he was created for. As for the people of happiness, they are facilitated for the deeds of the people of happiness. And as for the people of misery, they are facilitated for the deeds of the people of misery.

ما من أحد إلا كتب مقعده من الجنة ومقعده من النار قالو يا رسول الله أفلا ندع العمل ونتكل على الكتاب قال اعملوا فكل ميسر لما خلق له أما أهل السعادة فييسرون لعمل أهل السعادة وأما أهل الشقاوة فييسرون لعمل أهل الشقاوة

If someone says: If the matter is decreed, then there is no benefit in action, and he persists in that and carries out what he said, we know that he is among the people of misery, and I seek refuge in Allah, because he was not facilitated for the deeds of the people of happiness. Then we say to this man: Do you know that Allah has decreed for you that you are among the people of misery so that you act with their deeds? He will say: No. We say: If Allah has decreed that He has written you among the people of happiness, act with the deeds of the people of happiness. Then we say thirdly: If you were told now that a certain town has great trade and is a safe town, a town with abundance in provision, and another town is far inferior to it, would you say: I will not go to the first town because if it were decreed for me, I would go, and you go to the second town? Or would you go to the first town and say: It has been decreed for me? The answer is: He will say the latter; he will go to the town he sees as more beneficial for him and say: It has been decreed for me to go to it. So it is also the path to Paradise and the Fire. Let us suppose that Paradise and the Fire are towns; would you go to the town of misery and punishment or the town of bliss and happiness? He would go to the second. Therefore, only a man who has been abandoned, and I seek refuge in Allah, would say that statement you mentioned. We know that if he persists in that, it is decreed for him that he is among the people of misery, and he will taste the wrath of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), as Allah the Exalted said:

⁽¹⁴⁸⁾ Those who associated with Allah will say, "If Allah had willed, we would not have associated [anything] and neither would our fathers, nor would we have prohibited anything." Likewise did those before deny until they tasted Our punishment. Say, "Do you have any knowledge that you can produce for us? You follow not except assumption, and you are not but falsifying." ⁽¹⁴⁹⁾ Say, "With Allah is the far-reaching argument. If He had willed, He would have guided you all."

سَيَقُولُ الَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا لَوْ شَاءَ اللَّهُ مَا أَشْرَكْنَا وَلَا آبَاؤُنَا وَلَا حَرَّمْنَا مِنْ شَيْءٍ كَذَلِكَ كَذَّبَ الَّذِينَ مِنْ قَبْلِهِمْ حَتَّى ذَاقُوا بَأْسَنَا قُلْ هَلْ عِنْدَكُمْ مِنْ عِلْمٍ فَتُخْرِجُوهُ لَنَا إِنْ تَتَّبِعُونَ إِلَّا الظَّنَّ وَإِنْ أَنْتُمْ إِلَّا تَخْرُصُونَ قُلْ فَلِلَّهِ الْحُجَّةُ الْبَالِغَةُ

[Al-An'am 6:148-149]

As for the hadith of Ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him)

that one amongst you acts like the people deserving Paradise until between him and Paradise there remains but the distance of a cubit, when suddenly the writing of destiny overcomes him and he begins to act like the denizens of Hell and thus enters Hell

إن أحدكم ليعمل بعمل أهل الجنة حتى ما يكون بينه وبينها إلا ذراع فيسبق عليه الكتاب فيعمل بعمل أهل النار فيدخلها

Sahih Muslim 2643a

, this necessitates caution so that a person does not act with the deeds of the people of Paradise in what appears to people, without what is in the interior of his heart. And what indicates this is what is established in the authentic hadiths also, that a man was with the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in a military expedition, and he did not leave for the enemy a single hair or strand but he dealt with it, so the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said:

This (man) is from the dwellers of the Hell-Fire.

هذا من أهل النار

Sahih al-Bukhari 4203

Source alathar.net

The Arabic text is copied verbatim from the original source, without any edits.

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