The Meaning of Happiness and Wretchedness

Question:

I would like a clear explanation of the words Sa'adah (happiness) and Shaqawah (wretchedness) which Allah decrees for man when he is in the belly of his mother, and how can this be reconciled with the Verse:

As for him who gives (in charity) and keeps his duty to Allah and fears Him, and believes in Al-Husna (the best, i.e. La ilaha illallah none has the right to be worshipped except Allah, or a reward from Allah), We will make smooth for him the path of ease. But he who is a greedy miser and thinks himself self-sufficient and belies Al-Husna, We will make smooth for him the path of evil?

Answer:

The happiness and wretchedness which Allah, the Most Glorified, Most High decrees for mankind when he is in the belly of his mother was also decreed for man fifty thousand years before the creation of the heavens and the earth.

"When Allah, the Most Glorified, Most High created the Pen, He said to it: "Write." It asked: "What shall I write?" He replied: "Write all that will be." So it wrote everything that would be from that hour to the Day of Resurrection.

Included in that is the happiness of the sons of Adam and their wretchedness, and this does not contradict the Words of Allah, the Almighty, the Majestic:

As for him who gives (in charity) and keeps his duty to Allah and fears Him, and believes in Al-Husna (the best, i.e. La ilaha illallah none has the right to be worshipped except Allah, or a reward from Allah), We will make smooth for him the path of ease. But he who is a greedy miser and thinks himself self-sufficient and belies Al-Husna, We will make smooth for him the path of evil.

Because the deeds of the individual are the means by which he attains happiness or the cause of his wretchedness. So he is required to abide by the commands and prohibitions which Allah has enjoined upon him and believe in what he is informed, and to avoid miserliness and claiming to have no need of Allah, the Almighty, the Majestic, and disbelief in what he is informed. The Prophet informed his Companions, may Allah be pleased with them:

"There is none whose place in Paradise or the Hell-Fire has not been already written.»

They said: "O Messenger of Allah! Shall we not depend upon what has been written and abandon deeds?" He said:

"Act, for the path of everyone is made easy towards that for which he was created. Then he recited this Verse.

Thus, when a person conforms, and he follows the right path, and fulfills what Allah has ordained for him and abstains from what is prohibited to him, and believes in what he is obliged to believe, the way is then made easy for him to attain ease. This is a sign and a proof for him that he is one of the people of As- Sa'adah, because the Prophet said that the deeds of the people of As-Sa'adah are made easy for them.

In the case of the one who opposes this, it is a proof of his wretchedness - may Allah protect us from that - for it is made easy for him to perform the deeds of the people of Ash- Shaqawah.