Allah, exalted is He, had the document written and made the angels witness to it. When He wished to take Adam’s soul, Adam said, “Forty years of my lifespan still remain.” It was said to him, “You donated them to your son David.” Adam denied it, so Allah produced the written record and brought forth the witnesses. Thus David’s span was completed at one hundred years, and Adam’s at one thousand.

This isnād is unique to Aḥmad, and ʿAlī ibn Zayd’s narration is objectionable (1).

Al-Ṭabarānī also related it (2) through ʿAlī ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, from Ḥajjāj ibn Minhāl, from Ḥammād ibn Salamah, from ʿAlī ibn Zayd, from Yūsuf ibn Mihrān, from Ibn ʿAbbās.

Several others transmitted it from al-Ḥasan, who said: When the verse on recording debts was revealed, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “The first to renege was Adam,” repeating it three times, and he mentioned the rest of the story.

Imām Mālik ibn Anas narrated in his al-Muwaṭṭaʾ from Zayd ibn Abī Unaysah, who reported that ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb informed him, from Muslim ibn Yasār al-Juhanī, that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was asked about the verse: “And when your Lord took from the children of Adam—from their loins—their progeny and made them testify against themselves, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ They said, ‘Yes indeed’” (al-Aʿrāf 7:172).

ʿUmar replied, “I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ asked about it, and he said:

‘Allah created Adam, then passed His right hand over his back and brought forth from him offspring, saying, “I have created these for Paradise, and they will perform the deeds of the people of Paradise.” He then passed His hand over his back and brought forth another group of offspring, saying, “I have created these for the Fire, and they will perform the deeds of the people of the Fire.”’

A man asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, then what is the role of deeds?’ The Messenger of Allah ﷺ answered:

‘When Allah creates a servant for Paradise, He employs him in the works of the people of Paradise until he dies while doing one of their deeds, whereupon he enters Paradise thereby. And when Allah creates a servant for the Fire, He employs him in the works of the people of the Fire until he dies while doing one of their deeds, whereupon he enters the Fire.’ (4)

This ḥadīth was likewise transmitted by Imām Aḥmad, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī, Ibn Jarīr, Ibn Abī Ḥātim, and Abū Ḥātim Ibn Ḥibbān in his Ṣaḥīḥ, all through the route of Imām Mālik (5). Al-Tirmidhī said, “It is a ḥasan ḥadīth, and Muslim ibn Yasār did not hear from ʿUmar.” The same was stated by Abū Ḥātim and Abū Zurʿah; Abū Ḥātim added, “Between them stands Naʿīm ibn Rabīʿah.”

Abū Dāwūd also narrated it (6) from Muḥammad ibn Muṣaffā, from Baqiyyah, from ʿUmar ibn Juʿthum, from Zayd ibn Abī Unaysah, from ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, from Muslim ibn Yasār, from Naʿīm ibn Rabīʿah, who said: