Ubadah bin al Samit said to his son: Sonny! You will not get the taste of the reality of faith until you know that what has come to you could not miss you, and that what has missed you could not come to you. I heard the Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم say: The first thing Allah created was pen. He said to it: Write. It asked: What should I write, my lord? He said: Write what was decreed about everything till the Last hour comes. Sonny! I heard the Messenger of Allah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم say: He who dies on something other than this does not does not belong to me.

Ibn al-Dailami said: I went to Ubayy bin Kaab and said him: I am confused about Divine decree, so tell me something by means of which Allah may remove the confusion from my mind. He replied: were Allah to punish everyone in the heavens and in the earth. He would do so without being unjust to them, and were he to show mercy to them his mercy would be much better than their actions merited. Were you to spend in support of Allah’s cause an amount of gold equivalent to Uhud, Allah would not accept it from you till you believed in divine decree and knew that what has come to you could not miss you and that what has missed you could not come to you. Were you to die believing anything else you would enter Hell. He said: I then went to Abdullah bin Masud and he said something to the same effect. I next went to Hudhaifah bin al-Yaman and he said something to the same effect. I next went to Zaid bin Thabit who told me something from the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم to the same effect.