A man asked, "Messenger of Allah, are the people of Paradise distinguished from the people of the Fire?"He replied, "Yes."The man asked, "Then why do those who strive bother to act?"He answered, "Each person does what he was created for, or what is made easy for him."
قال رجل: يا رسول الله: أيعرف أهل الجنة من أهل النار؟ قال: نعم. قال: فلم يعمل العاملون؟ قال: كل يعمل لما خلق له، أو لما ييسير له.
Bukhari related it in the Chapter on Predestination (6596), and Muslim in the Chapter on Predestination (2649), both from the hadith of Shuba, from Yazid Rishk, who said, "I heard Mutarrif bin Abdullah bin Shikhir narrating from Imran bin Husayn," and he mentioned it, their wording being identical.As for what Bayhaqi related in Qadar wal-Qadar (1/226) through the route of Muammal bin Ismail, who said, "Sufyan bin Uyayna narrated to us, from Amr bin Dinar, from Talq bin Habib, from Bashir bin Kaab Adawi, from Imran bin Husayn," who said, two young men came to the Messenger of Allah and said, "O Messenger of Allah, tell us about what people do, striving and toiling in it, is it something already decreed by the divine measures and already written down by the pens, or is it a matter they take up anew?" The Messenger of Allah said, "It is a matter already decreed by the divine measures and already written down by the pens." They said, "O Messenger of Allah, then what is the point of striving?" He said, "Strive, for everyone is made ready for what he was created for." They said, "Now we find the point of striving."The correct view is that this is a mursal narration, because Muammal bin Ismail is truthful but weak in memory, and he has been contradicted by Qutayba bin Saeed, who is an authoritative and reliable memorizer. Qutayba related it through the route of Bashir bin Kaab Adawi as a mursal narration.Firyabi related it in Qadar (101), and Ibn Batta in Ibana (1358), through the route of Qutayba bin Saeed, from Sufyan, with his chain of transmission.