How do we reconcile the saying of Allah the Exalted: “So walk about in its sides and eat of its provision” with the saying of the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) in the hadith of Ibn Mas’ud?

The questioner : This is one of the hadiths of the Nawawi Forty. Naturally, the hadith speaks about the creation of man, about the gradual stages in the creation of man...

The Shaykh: About what?

The questioner : About the gradual stages in the creation of man.

The Shaykh : Yes, meaning: ?

The questioner : Yes, so part of the hadith is that an angel writes for him the provision that was decreed for him. And Allah the Exalted says: Yesterday, one of the scholars asked me: How do we reconcile the hadith with striving for provision? Provision is written, and I must strive. How do I reconcile these two matters? Between the verse and the hadith?

The Shaykh : Good. Do you see if provision is the only thing that is apportioned, or is there something else in the same hadith? Happiness and wretchedness, and lifespan. Remember this well.

The questioner : Yes, four things are written for him.

The Shaykh : How do we reconcile the writing of happiness and wretchedness with His saying: .

The questioner : Taking the means.

The Shaykh : That is the answer. That is the answer.

The questioner : The answer is taking the means. That is the answer. I answered him with something like this, and I said to him... Taking the means is the principle, but I must strive at the beginning of the path, but what was written for me, I may obtain something other than it.

The Shaykh : As for your saying "at the beginning of the path," the word "beginning" is not precise.

The questioner : Please, my master.

The Shaykh : The beginning and the end, not just the beginning. The path means that you walk on the path to the end, then Allah, Mighty and Majestic, presents to you what preceded in eternity or in His knowledge, Mighty and Majestic.
My previous answer was from the perspective of a brief, concise answer, but the truth is that the matter, for the general people, requires detail. Many people imagine from some of the texts in the Book and the Sunnah that the issue is one of luck and portion. That whoever Allah wrote as happy is happy, done, no matter what he does he is happy, and whoever He wrote as wretched or a disbeliever is wretched or a disbeliever no matter what he does. Especially when they hear the hadith that says: The general people, even some of the Asha'irah or the Jabriyyah, understand this grasp, although it is the grasp of the Divine who described Himself with all attributes of perfection, including His saying: It comes to their minds that this divine grasp is like the grasp of any ignorant person, a handful of wheat or barley. The most skilled, most intelligent person, when he grasps a handful, does not know what he has grasped of the grains, or of the ledger, or of the dust, or of the small pebbles; he does not know. But Allah knows. So our Lord, Mighty and Majestic, when He grasped this handful, we must immediately imagine that it is the grasp of the All-Knowing, the Just, the Wise, nothing is hidden from Him on earth or in the sky. So this grasp is not like the grasp of ignorant, incapable humans, and so on. Therefore, this grasp is the grasp of the Right Hand, grasping those who preceded in His knowledge as owners of these atoms that will later become sound humans. That when they are charged and the messengers come to them as bringers of good news and warners, they will respond to the obedience of the Lord of the Worlds. So He said: He knows from among these, and they are the obedient ones, and the opposite is the opposite completely. The grasp of the Left Hand, grasping those who preceded in the knowledge of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, that they will be among the disobedient. So happiness and wretchedness were written within the limits of what preceded in the knowledge of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, regarding the deeds of those who are charged. So whoever preceded in His knowledge that he will do the deed of the people of happiness, He wrote him as happy beforehand, and the opposite is the opposite. Therefore, it came in the authentic hadith when the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) mentioned the answer to a questioner: "Are our deeds from the pre-eternity, or is the matter new?" He said: Or as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said. When it was said to him: "Then what is the work for, O Messenger of Allah?" He said: .
So, by faith, we say that happiness and wretchedness were written and the pen has dried up with what is to be, but we do not know if Zayd or Bakr among the people is happy or wretched. But we know, how? As the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) was asked by some of the Companions: How do I know if I am a believer or not? He said: If they say about you that you are a believer, then you are a believer. So the deed is the proof of righteousness or wretchedness. The deed is the proof of righteousness or wretchedness. And we can bring into this topic the hadith of Anas ibn Malik and others of the Companions, in which it came that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was sitting one day when a funeral passed by and they spoke well of it, so he (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) said: Then another passed by and they spoke ill of it, so he (may the prayer and peace of Allah be upon him) said: They said: "O Messenger of Allah, the first funeral passed by and you said: Then the other passed by and you said likewise: What does 'it is obligatory' mean?" He said: .
So it is not necessary for us to claim the claim of the extreme Sufis, those who call upon their awliya (close friends of Allah) and their righteous ones. He does this, he reveals from the Preserved Tablet, so-and-so is happy and so-and-so is wretched. And he supplicates to Allah to make the wretched one happy, and the happy one wretched, so that he can take revenge on him. We do not need these great calamities. We have proof: So our saying "taking the means" connects to this reality. Taking the means does not mean, in what we are discussing, that the effect may be delayed from the cause. No, on the contrary, yes. In what concerns striving for provision, the effect may be delayed from the cause. But in what concerns happiness and wretchedness, there is no delay at all. The cause must exist, and the effect must exist, in happiness and wretchedness. But in striving for provision, the matter is not so, and it is explicit in the saying of our Lord, Blessed and Exalted: What We will for whom We will. That is, the matter here returns first to the will of Allah, secondly: the amount that Allah wills. He strives night and day like a donkey, and then it does not come to him...; This is what does not waste his striving. This reaches his desire. If he does a deed, for example, that deserves his rank in Paradise to be raised to a hundred, it is not possible that it be ninety-nine. But if he strives for provision to bring him, for example, a hundred dinars in the month or in the week, it may not come to him. But the cause is necessary, as you began your speech in the matter of Allah, Mighty and Majestic, in striving on earth. But this striving is not necessarily to bear the fruit that this striver seeks, unlike the one who strives for the happiness of the Hereafter, who is undoubtedly and certainly reaching it. And this is as Allah the Exalted said: .