He asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ upon his return from Badr, "Are we acting upon a matter already decreed, or upon something newly unfolding?"The Messenger replied, "It is a matter already decreed."Ali said, "Then what is the point of action?"The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, "Everyone is enabled toward what has been written for him and against him."
أنه سأل رسول الله ﷺ مرجعه من بدر، فقال: أنعمل لأمر قد فرغ منه أم لأمر نأتنفه؟ فقال: الأمر قد فرغ منه. قال: ففيم العمل إذا؟ فقال رسول الله ﷺ: كل ميسر لما كتب له وعليه.
Ibn Wahb narrated it in Qadar (19), and from him Ibn Batta in Ibana (1353), from Usama bin Zayd, from Amr bin Shuayb, from his father, from his grandfather, from Umar bin Khattab, and he mentioned it. Its isnad is hasan because of Usama bin Zayd, who is Laythi, about whom there is disagreement, though his hadith is hasan, and Muslim included his narrations. The hadith has other paths, but the one I have mentioned is the most sahih of them, and some of its paths may come up along with an explanation of their defects.Among these paths is what Tirmidhi narrated by two routes. The first route (2135) is through Shuba, from Asim bin Ubaydullah, from Salim bin Abdullah, narrating from his father, who said, Umar said, "O Messenger of Allah, what do you think about what we do, is it a newly initiated matter, or something already decided and finished?" He said, "It is something already decided and finished, O Ibn Khattab, and everyone is made easy toward what he was created for. As for the people of felicity, they act toward felicity, and as for the people of misery, they act toward misery."This route was also narrated by Imam Ahmad (196) and Bazzar (121). The scholars unanimously agree on declaring Asim bin Ubaydullah daif. As for Tirmidhi's statement, "hasan sahih," this reflects a leniency on his part, or perhaps he intends it to describe the hadith itself rather than the isnad.The second route is what Tirmidhi also narrated (3111) through Sulayman bin Sufyan, from Abdullah bin Dinar, from Ibn Umar, from Umar bin Khattab, who said, "When this verse was revealed, "Among them are the wretched and the fortunate" [Hud 11:105], I asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, saying, 'O Prophet of Allah, on what basis do we act? On something already decided and finished, or on something not yet decided?' He said, 'Rather, on something already decided and finished, and the pens have already written it, O Umar, but everyone is made easy toward what he was created for.'"This route was also narrated by Ibn Abu Asim in Sunnah (170). Sulayman bin Sufyan is Taymi, their client, Abu Sufyan Madani, and he is daif.