, they will be enabled to perform the deeds of the wretched.’ Then he recited the words of the Most High:

‘As for the one who gives and fears Allah, and believes in the best reward, We will make easy for him the way of ease. But as for the one who withholds and considers himself self-sufficient, and denies the best reward, We will make easy for him the way of hardship.’”

It is also reported in the Sahīh:

“He was asked, ‘O Messenger of Allah, is it already known who will be among the people of Paradise and who will be among the people of the Fire?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’ He was then asked, ‘What, then, is the point of deeds?’ He said, ‘Perform deeds, for everyone will be enabled to do that for which he was created.’”

Thus the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, explained that Allah knows who will be among the people of Paradise and who will be among the people of the Fire, and that He has recorded this. He forbade them to rely on this record and abandon deeds, as those who deviate from the truth do. He said that everyone will be enabled to do that for which he was created: the blessed are enabled to perform the deeds of the blessed, and the wretched are enabled to perform the deeds of the wretched. This is among the clearest explanations possible.

Allah, glorified and exalted be He, knows things as they truly are. He has appointed causes through which things come about, and He knows that they will come about through those causes. For example, He knows that a man will have a child by having intercourse with a woman and causing her to conceive. If that man were to say, “If Allah knows that I will have a child, there is no need for intercourse,” he would be foolish, for Allah knows that the child will come into being through the intercourse He decrees.

Likewise, He knows that a person’s crops will grow through the water with which he irrigates them and the seeds he sows. If that person were to say, “If He knows that this will happen, there is no need to sow,” he would be ignorant and misguided, for Allah knows that it will happen through those means. Likewise, if Allah knows that one person will satisfy his hunger by eating, another will quench his thirst by drinking, and another will die by being killed, then the causes through which Allah knows these things will occur must necessarily take place.