they will be in Paradise, abiding therein as long as the heavens and the earth endure, except as your Lord wills—a gift that shall never be cut off.” (Hud 11:106–108)

All of this is written down. But where is it written? Certain narrations state that it is inscribed upon his very forehead.

Should someone object, “How can a forehead hold all of that writing?” we answer: Do not pry into matters of the unseen. Who are you to probe what lies beyond perception? Simply say, “I believe in Allah; I affirm Allah and His Messenger,” and do not ask, “How?”

In our own day we see something that bears witness to this: a hand-sized computer by which a person can type thousands of words—yet it is merely a human invention. What, then, of the handiwork of Allah the Exalted?

In short, this is one of those matters the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) has informed us about even though your senses cannot grasp it. Your duty is to believe and submit, for were you to withhold belief and submission until you perceived something with your senses, you would not be a believer, and you would not be one who believes in the unseen. The true believer in the unseen is the one who accepts everything that comes from Allah and His Messenger, declaring, “I believe in Allah and His Messenger, and I affirm their words.”

He said, “By Him besides Whom there is no deity, one of you may act with the deeds of the people of Paradise until there is only an arm’s length between him and it; then what has been written overtakes him, so he acts with the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it.” Yet rejoice, for this ḥadīth is qualified: such a person was only outwardly performing the deeds of the people of Paradise while in truth he belonged to the people of the Fire. As for the one who performs the deeds of the people of Paradise with a sincere heart, Allah will never forsake him—Allah is far more generous to His servant. When