A comparable example is someone who says, “I will not have intercourse with a woman. If Allah has decreed that I should have a child, it will be born.” Such a person is ignorant, for when Allah decrees that a child will be born, He decrees that its father will have intercourse with a woman, who will then conceive and give birth. As for a child without pregnancy or intercourse, Allah has neither decreed nor recorded that.

Likewise, Allah has prepared Paradise only for the believers. Whoever thinks that he will enter Paradise without faith is mistaken. If he believes that the deeds Allah has commanded are unnecessary, and that it makes no difference whether he performs them or not, he is a disbeliever. Allah has forbidden Paradise to the disbelievers. Thus, this belief contradicts the faith whose possessor will not enter the Fire.

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As for His words, Most High:

“Indeed, those for whom We have already decreed the finest reward will be kept far away from it.”

Anyone for whom Allah has already decreed the finest reward must become a pious believer. Whoever is not among the believers has not had the finest reward decreed for him by Allah. Rather, when Allah has decreed something beforehand for a servant, He directs him to perform the deeds by which he will attain what was decreed for him. This is like someone for whom Allah has decreed that he will have a child: he must have intercourse with a woman and cause her to conceive. For Allah, glorified be He, has decreed both causes and their effects; both have been decreed by Him beforehand. Whoever thinks that the finest reward has been decreed by Allah for anyone without a cause has gone astray. Rather, He, glorified be He, facilitates both causes and their effects, and He has decreed both beforehand.