Mu'jam Kabir Tabarani 4255 — I was sitting with Sa'id bin al-Musayyib

Amr bin Shu'ayb (may Allah have mercy on him) said: I was sitting with Sa'id bin al-Musayyib (may Allah have mercy on him) when people mentioned that some people say: Allah has decreed everything except deeds. The narrator said: By Allah, I have never seen Sa'id bin al-Musayyib more intensely angry than that, to the point that he was about to stand up; then he calmed down and said: They say this! By Allah, I have heard a hadith about them that is enough to show their evil. Woe to them! Do they not know? I said: May Allah have mercy on you, O Abu Muhammad! What is it? The narrator said: He looked at me, some of his anger having cooled, and said: Sayyiduna Rafi' bin Khadij (may Allah be pleased with him) told me that he heard the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) say: "There will be a group from my Ummah who will disbelieve in Allah and in the Qur'an without even realising it, just as the Jews and the Christians disbelieved." I said: May I be ransomed for you, O Messenger of Allah! How will that be? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "They will affirm part of the decree (qadar) and deny part of it." I said: Then what will they say? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "They will say: Good is from Allah and evil is from Iblis. On that basis they will keep affirming the Book of Allah, while they disbelieve in the Qur'an after faith and knowledge. How much enmity, hatred and dispute my Ummah will face from them! These people will be the heretics (zanadiqah) of this Ummah in their time. In that era there will be the oppression of rulers, so they will suffer oppression, injustice and favouritism. Then Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, will send a plague that will wipe out most of them. Then there will be the sinking into the earth (khasf), and very few of them will be saved. On that day the believer's joy will be little and his grief severe. Then there will be transformation (maskh), and Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, will transform most of them into apes and swine. Then, shortly after that, the Dajjal will emerge." Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) wept, until we too wept because of his weeping. We said: What has made you weep? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Out of mercy for the grief of these wretched ones, for among them will be devout worshippers and among them those who strive hard; yet they are not the first to have taken the lead in this view, and before them too it became too heavy to bear. Most of those of the Children of Israel who perished, perished because of denying the decree." I said: May I be ransomed for you, O Messenger of Allah! Tell me, how is faith in the decree to be held? He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "That you believe in Allah alone, and know that no one besides Him has any power to harm or to benefit; and that you believe in Paradise and Hell, and know that Allah, the Mighty and Majestic, created them both before creating the creation; then He created His creation and made whomever He willed of them for Paradise and whomever He willed of them for Hell, and that is justice from Him. Everyone does the deeds for which he has been prepared beforehand, and he is heading towards that for which he was prepared." I said: Allah and His Messenger have spoken the truth.