I went to Ubayy b. Ka’b and said him : I am confused about Divine decree, so tell me something by means of which Allah may remove the confusion from my mind. He replied : were Allah to punish everyone in the heavens and in the earth. He would do so without being unjust to them, and were he to show mercy to them his mercy would be much better than their actions merited. Were you to spend in support of Allah’s cause an amount of gold equivalent to Uhud, Allah would not accept it from you till you believed in divine decree and knew that what has come to you could not miss you and that what has missed you could not come to you. Were you to die believing anything else you would enter Hell. He said : I then went to ‘Abd Allah b. MAs’ud and he said something to the same effect. I next went to Hudhaifah b. al-Yaman and he said something to the same effect. I next went to Zaid b. Thabit who told me something from the Prophet (May peace be upon him) to the same effect.