The Results of Deeds Depend on its End

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On the authority of Aboo Abdur Rahmaan Abdullah ibn Masood (may Allah be pleased with him) who said:

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and he is truthful, the believed, narrated to us: “Verity the creation of each one of you is brought together in his mother’s womb for forty days in the form of a Nuftah(mixed drop of male and female sexual discharge). Then he is an Alaq (clot of blood) for a like period, then a Mudghah (morsel of flesh) for alike period, then the angel is sent to him who blows the breath of life into him and who is commanded about four matters: To write down his means of livelihood, his life span, his actions, and whether his end is good or bad. By Allah, Whom there is no deity (worthy of worship) other than Him, one of you behaves like the people of Paradise until there is but an arm’s length between him and it, and that which has been written overtakes him, so he behaves like the people of the Hellfire until he enters it. And one of you behaves like the people of Hellfire until there is but an arm’s length between him and it, and that which has been written overtakes him, so he behaves like the people of Paradise until he enters it.”[Bukhari #3206, Muslim #2643]

Benefits of this Hadith

Within this hadith is a clarification of the stages of man from the mother’s womb, the writing of his life span, his provision and other than that.

Abdullah Ibn Masood (may Allah be pleased with him) said, “The Messenger of Allah — and he is truthful, the believed narrated to us…”

This has been presented in the introduction because it is from the affairs of the unseen that can not be known except by revelation. A clarification of the stages of man in the mother’s womb, and it contains four stages:

a) The first is Nuftah(mixed drop of male and female sexual discharge) for forty days.

b) The second is the blood clot stage for forty days.

c) The third is the morsel of flesh stage for forty days.

d) The fourth stage is after the blowing of the soul into the womb. Before four months, the baby is not to be judged that he is a living person. Based on this, if the baby dies before four months are completed, he is not washed, nor buried, nor prayed over because he was not a living person. After four moths, the soul is blown into it, and the ruling is established that he is living. If he were to die after that, he is washed, buried, and prayed over just as if it were after a complete nine months. The wombs have an angel that has been assigned to them due to this statement, “Then the angel is sent to him”. The status of man is written while he is in the womb of his mother: his provision, his actions, his life span, whether his end is good or bad. From this is the clarification of the wisdom of Allah, The Mighty, The Majestic, that everything with Him has a set of written measure that will not precede (its time), nor will it be prolonged. It is incumbent on man to be upon fear and dread, because the Messenger (peace be upon him) informed,

“One of you behaves like the people of Paradise until there is but an arm’s length between him and it, and that which has been written overtakes him, so he behaves like the people of the Hellfire until he enters it”. It is not appropriate for man to give up hope. A person may continue a sin for a long period of time, and then Allah blesses him with guidance so that he is guided in the later portion of his life, because the Messenger (peace be upon him) informed,

“And one of you behaves like the people of Hellfire until there is but an arm’s length between him and it, and that which has been written overtakes him, so he behaves like the people of Paradise until he enters it”.

IMPORTANT:

Question:

What is the wisdom behind Allah forsaking the one who does the actions of the people of Paradise until there is an arm’s length between him and it, and that which has been written overtakes him so he behaves like the people of the Hellfire?

Answer:

The wisdom behind that is the one who does the actions of the people of Paradise in only doing the actions of the people of Paradise in that which are displayed to the people, but in reality, his innermost thoughts are filthy and he has a corrupt intention. So this corrupt intention overtakes him until he has a misfortunate end, and we seek Allah’s refuge from that.