Praise be to Allah, and peace and blessings be upon the Messenger of Allah. To proceed:
Guidance and divine enabling are in the hands of Allah تعالى. He guides whom He wills and leads whom He wills astray according to His wisdom. Therefore, He commanded us to ask Him for guidance in every prayer: ﴿Guide us to the Straight Path﴾.
However, the fact that guidance is in the hands of Allah does not mean that a servant should abandon action and the means. Allah has given him intellect, will, and the ability to choose, and has commanded him to follow the path of truth, strive in obedience, and seek guidance. Allah تعالى says: ﴿But when they deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate﴾, thus showing that the servant’s deviation is a cause of his being led astray.
It is not valid for a person to use divine decree as an excuse for going astray or committing sins, because he does not know what Allah has decreed for him before it occurs. Therefore, he must follow the path of guidance and then say: “Allah guided me and granted me success.” But for someone to disobey and say, “This is the decree of Allah upon me,” is not a valid excuse for him.
In seeking guidance, a person is like someone seeking provision and healing. Just as provision is decreed, yet a person still seeks its means, and when he becomes ill he seeks a doctor and medicine, he must likewise seek the means of guiding his heart and correcting his deeds. Both the means and their outcomes are included in the decree of Allah تعالى.
The scholars of Ahl al-Sunnah have established that a servant acts according to his own choice and will, but his will and choice are subject to the will of Allah تعالى. Allah’s will is based upon wisdom: He decrees guidance for the one whom He knows desires the truth and walks upon the path of righteousness, and He decrees misguidance for the one who turns away from the truth and persists in deviation.
For this reason, guidance is connected with righteous deeds, as Allah تعالى says concerning the people of Paradise: ﴿And it will be proclaimed to them: “This is Paradise, which you have inherited because of what you used to do”﴾, and He says: ﴿Enter Paradise because of what you used to do﴾. As for misguidance and punishment, their cause is disbelief, disobedience, and turning away from obedience to Allah. Allah تعالى says: ﴿You will only be recompensed for what you used to earn﴾.
Therefore, the Muslim must combine both matters: he should strive for the means of guidance and obedience, seek Allah’s help, and ask Him for success and steadfastness, without relying solely upon his deeds and without using divine decree as an excuse to abandon obedience.
In conclusion: Guidance is a blessing from Allah, and it has means that the servant must pursue. Whoever seeks the truth, strives toward it, and seeks Allah’s help may hope for success and guidance. Therefore, the believer should act and strive while constantly recognizing his need for Allah and supplicating Him to guide him and keep him firm upon the Straight Path.
And Allah knows best.