Sunan Abi Dawud 4612

Muhammad ibn Kathir narrated to us; he said: Sufyan narrated to us. A man wrote to Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz asking him about divine decree. Ḥāʾ; al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman al-Mu'adhdhin narrated to us; he said: Asad ibn Musa narrated to us; he said: Hammad ibn Dalil narrated to us; he said: I heard Sufyan al-Thawri narrating to us from al-Nadr. Ḥāʾ; Hannad ibn al-Sari narrated to us, from Qabisah, who said: Abu Raja narrated to us, from Abu al-Salt—this is the wording of Ibn Kathir's report, and their meanings are the same—who said: A man wrote to Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz asking him about divine decree, and he wrote: ‘To proceed: I counsel you to be mindful of Allah, to be moderate in His command, to follow the Sunnah of His Prophet (ﷺ), and to abandon what innovators have introduced after his Sunnah had been established and its burden borne. You must cling to the Sunnah, for by Allah's permission it is a protection for you. Know that people have never introduced an innovation without something preceding it that serves as evidence against it or a lesson in it. The Sunnah was established by those who knew the error, slip, foolishness, and excess involved in opposing it. (Ibn Kathir's wording omits: “those who knew.”) Be content with what the people were content with, for they stopped on the basis of knowledge, refrained with clear insight, were stronger in uncovering matters, and were more entitled by virtue of what they possessed. If the guidance you follow is correct, then you have outstripped them to it. And if you claim that whatever arose after them was introduced only by people who followed a path other than theirs and turned away from them, then they were the ones who went before. They spoke enough about it and described it in a way that suffices. Those who fall short of them have no excuse, and those who go beyond them exhaust themselves. Some people fell short of them and were negligent; others went beyond them and exceeded the bounds. Yet they were on straight guidance between those extremes. You wrote asking about affirming divine decree; by Allah's permission, you have asked one who knows about it. I know of no innovation people have introduced that is clearer in evidence or more firmly established than affirming divine decree. In the ignorant pre-Islamic age people spoke of it in their speech and poetry, consoling themselves for what they had missed. Islam only strengthened this belief thereafter. The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) mentioned it in more than one or two reports. The Muslims heard it from him and spoke of it during his lifetime and after his death, with certainty and submission to their Lord, and acknowledging their own inability to suppose that anything could escape His knowledge, go unrecorded in His register, or fall outside His decree. Even so, it is stated plainly in His decisive Book: they drew it from the Book and learned it from the Book. If you ask, “Why did Allah reveal such-and-such a verse? Why did He say such-and-such?” they read from it what you read and knew its interpretation, of which you are ignorant. After all that, they said: “All of this is by the Book and the decree. Misfortune has been written down; whatever is decreed will come to pass. Whatever Allah wills happens, and whatever He does not will does not happen. We have no power to bring harm or benefit upon ourselves.” After that, they continued to hope and to fear.’