The Number of Those Who Enter Paradise

Point 52 reads: Wa qad ʿalima Allāhu taʿālā fīmā lam yazal ʿadada man yadkhulu al-jannata wa ʿadada man yadkhulu al-nāra jumlatan wāḥidah, fa-lā yuzādu fī dhālika al-ʿadadi wa lā yunqaṣu minh.

Article 52. Allah has always known the total number of those who will enter paradise and those who will enter fire. Nothing is added or subtracted from that number.

Think about this. Again, this is not trying to doom people. It actually relates to His knowledge: that Allah has known. His knowledge is so complete and absolute that He knows exactly, and there is going to be no change. No "Oh, I forgot that guy": nothing like that. No "Very well, you are let off now": it is not about that. It is about knowing what people are going to do, and then they are going to enter paradise or hell. Allah has that absolute knowledge from before, and there is no change in that number.

Wa kadhālika afʿāluhum fīmā ʿalima minhum an yafʿalūh.

Likewise, His knowledge includes all of their actions which He knew they would perform in the world.

The actions that we are going to perform: Allah knows everything from before. The philosophers said that Allah knows only the wholes of things, the general aspects of things; that He does not know the particulars. The Messenger of Allah said: no, Allah knows to the most subtle aspect and detail. Allah knows it.

As the hadith quoted above shows, Imam al-Ṭaḥāwī is basing his points on that hadith.

Each is facilitated to that for which he was created. The judgment of one's deeds lies in one's final assertive act: the final sealing state, the final situation and state of the person. Those saved, or those fortunate, are ultimately saved by Allah's decision.

Meaning: those who are going to be fortunate are ultimately going to be fortunate because of Allah's decision, not because of the acts that they do. Those only help. Otherwise, the real reward comes from Allah's benevolence and generosity and His grace, and not because of the deeds, as though we could actually buy that place in paradise.

Just as those who are damned are ultimately damned by God's decision: by God's qadar, by His knowing about it, and by His forsaking them.

So, as said before, all Allah has to do is to take away tawfīq, take away guidance and protection, and the person goes wrong.