Continuation of the explanation of his saying (peace and blessings be upon him) " . . .

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 were those who held to compulsion (jabr) and that a person has no power to be happy or to be wretched, but rather it is the predetermined decree. This hadith refutes these people by saying, "All of you are astray except the one I guide..."
So, since Allah, as He said in the Noble Qur'an 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 continuation of this sentence comes as a clear refutation of such blatant speech. He says 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 people, in their actual state, or at least some of them, believe in part of the Book and disbelieve in part. Yes, our Lord says 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 . 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 and ask Him to guide them. So the hadith combines two realities: one relates to Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and that He is the Doer of what He wills, guiding whom He wills and leading 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. The other reality is the one that relates to us. He (Blessed and Exalted is He), after saying , commands us by saying . So this hadith establishes for us a principle, laying the foundation for the principle of taking means (asbab), the principle of taking means even in guidance and misguidance. Does it mean that the one who seeks guidance from Allah must be guided by Allah, and the one who turns away from Allah (Mighty and Majestic) and does not seek His guidance will not be guided by Him (Blessed and Exalted is He)? In explaining this, came His saying (Blessed and Exalted is He) in Surat al-Layl . So this verse, or these two verses, explain to us the principle of taking means, just as this hadith does. Take the means of guidance, which is to seek guidance from Allah through supplication and action. It is not enough that you supplicate to Him to guide you while you turn away from Him, even though He has guided you, as He said (Exalted is He) . 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 establishes for us the means of guidance, which is that we 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 that we 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 do the preceding verses . These are the ones whom Allah (Mighty and Majestic) guides, not the reverse . Once we understand 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, 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 is that they did not understand them well, whereas in reality they misunderstood them to the greatest extent. An example of this is the famous hadith, that famous hadith which says that when Allah (Mighty and Majestic) created the creation in the realm of the spirits, 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 , He took a handful with His left hand and said, "These are for the Fire, and I do not care." Some people, from among those who hold to compulsion, say that the matter is finished. So I am either from this handful, the right handful, meaning I am from the people of the right, the people of Paradise, or I am from the other handful. If I am from the people of the other handful, then good deeds will never benefit me at all. And if I am from the people of the first handful, then good 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 by saying , and the other verse is . He did not say "by what is written for you" or "by whoever was from the right handful, he is from the people of Paradise, and whoever was from the left handful, he is from the people of the Fire."
And in the context of clarifying this hadith of the two handfuls, it is incumbent upon us to remind that Allah (Mighty and Majestic) . So many people, due to their heedlessness, ignorance, or misguidance, imagine that the grasp of Allah is like the grasp of His servant among the servants of Allah. So any person today, among the farmers or sellers of chickpeas, for example, they divide the chickpeas into two types: the large chickpeas and the small chickpeas. How do they distinguish them? As you know, they put them in a sieve and shake them back and forth. The small ones fall through, which is a sign that they are small in size, and they are sold for a price. And the ones that remain on the sieve are the large ones. This is due to the weakness of the human being. But if the human being were given the attribute of Allah (Mighty and Majestic), there would be no need for this. The entire dominance would be such that he would take a handful from the pile of chickpeas, and in his grasp, the ones he wants would come out. What does he want? The large ones come out in his right hand. What does he want? The small or defective ones come out in his left hand. But the human being is weak and incapable. But the Lord of the Worlds is not so. His grasp is accompanied by all the attributes of Allah, such as power, knowledge, wisdom, and justice. So Allah (Mighty and Majestic) is an Essence described with all attributes of perfection. These attributes do not separate from His Essence (Blessed and Exalted is He) in any action that issues from Him (Mighty and Majestic) among these actions that issued from Him, these two handfuls. So you see that when He took from that world which numbers in the millions, billions, millions, etc., of humans from the day Adam was decreed until the Hour, this huge number, when Allah took a handful with His right hand, there is no 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 from those whom He knew in His knowledge that when they are sent down to the world and become sound human beings, and the warnings, prophets, and messengers come to them calling them to obey Allah, they will respond. 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 taken 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, Blessed and Exalted is He, that they would disobey Him. So this handful is not a matter of chaos, meaning random guessing as they say, or chance, luck, or fate. It is not that this one came out on the right so he is from the people of Paradise, and that one came out on the left so he 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 certain words, among which was that no soul enters Paradise except a Muslim or a believer. So Paradise is by the cause, which is faith and righteous deeds, and the Fire is by the cause, which is disbelief and evil deeds. Here Allah, Mighty and Majestic, alerts His servants that we are poor while He is the Rich, that we are weak while He is the Strong, that we are lost so we must seek guidance from Allah, for He guides us. As for the person who lives his entire life and does not stand up to Allah and does not seek His guidance, then he says, "If Allah has written for me... happiness, then I am among the happy, and if He has written for me... misery, then I am among the miserable." This is a deviation beyond which there is no deviation, 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. They strive hard on earth. Why? Because they know by experience that if they do not leave their house and run after their provision, the provision will not come to them. But does this provision, and the provision of Paradise, come to them by random guessing as they think? 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 are, because they reversed matters. In what requires taking means, they left off the action. It is as if a person today—and this exists as well—says, "If Allah wills to help us against the Jews, He will help us; there is no need for us to take the means that Allah has ordered in many verses, such as the famous verse to the end of the verse.
And this is what many of the later scholars fell into. There is no salvation for the Islamic community, and its only hope is in delay until Isa, peace be upon him, descends from the sky and meets the Mahdi, peace be upon him, and they kill the Dajjal and expel the Jews from Bayt al-Maqdis. So they have judged themselves to be dead and that they will not live except by the descent of Isa. Where did this come to them? From leaving the taking of 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 who take every 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 principle, the principle of taking means, 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 this 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.