Such are Allah Most High’s wisdom and will regarding all causes in this world and the Hereafter. Yet knowledge of the deeds that benefit or harm a person in the Hereafter lies, for the most part, beyond the reach of created minds. The same is true of the servants’ destiny and final abode after they depart this world. Allah—glorified and exalted is He—therefore sent His messengers as bearers of glad tidings and warnings, and revealed His books, so that people would have no argument against Allah after the messengers. His wisdom in this parallels His wisdom in creating all causes and their effects. This is only because His eternal knowledge, His unfailing will, and His irresistible power have determined what they have determined and necessitated what they have necessitated: that certain people should enter Paradise through deeds of theirs that lead necessarily to it.
He created their deeds and, through those deeds, led them to His good pleasure. The same applies to the people of the Fire. Thus the truthful one whose truthfulness is confirmed—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—was asked, “Should we not give up acting and rely on the written decree?”
He replied: “No. Act, for everyone is enabled to do that for which he was created. Whoever is destined for bliss will be enabled to perform the deeds of those destined for bliss, and whoever is destined for misery will be enabled to perform the deeds of those destined for misery.”
He—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—thus explained that the one destined for bliss may be enabled to perform the deed through which Allah Most High leads him to bliss. The same applies to the one destined for misery. Enabling him to perform it consists precisely in inspiring him to do that deed and preparing the means for it. This is what is meant by the creation of the servants’ acts: the very creation of that deed is the cause leading to bliss or misery. If He willed, He would bring this about without deeds. Indeed, He does so, for He creates people for Paradise to occupy the space remaining in it.
It remains to ask: what, then, of the all-encompassing wisdom that determined what it did regarding the first causes