The Destining of Allah Does Not Change
Know that Allah’s Eternal Predestining is not changed by anything; neither the supplication of the one who supplicates, nor the charity of the one who gives charity, nor the prayer of the one who prays, nor anything else among the good deeds. Instead there is no escape from the creation existing according to what Allah had Predestined for them Eternally without this changing at all.
As for the Saying of Allah:
﴿يَمْحُو اللَّـهُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَيُثْبِتُ وَعِندَهُ أُمُّ الْكِتَابِ﴾
[which means] “Allah Erases whatever He Willed, and He Confirms whatever He Willed, and to Him belongs the Guarded Tablet,” this does not mean the erasing and the confirmation is related to the Preordainment of Allah. Instead, the meaning of this is that Allah, Whose praises are exalted, Ordered to be written what would inflict the slave among His slaves, such as hardship, prevention from goodness, death, and other than that; and if the slave were to make du^a’, or he were to obey Allah by staying in touch with his [Muslim] relative or other than that, this hardship would not be inflicted upon that Muslim, or Allah will give him lots of provision instead, or make his life long.
He had written in the Guarded Tablet what will actually happen between those two matters. So the erasing and the confirmation goes back to one of the books of the angels in which this conditional destiny is written, just as Ibn ^Abbas signaled to. Al-Bayhaqiyy narrated from Ibn ^Abbas that he said about the verse of the Qur’an [which means]: “Allah Erases whatever He Willed, and He Confirms whatever He Willed, and to Him belongs the Guarded Tablet,” “Allah Erases whatever He Willed from the two books of the Angels. There are two books; Allah Erases whatever He Willed from one of them, and He Confirms the other one, and to Him belongs the Guarded Tablet [that contains all of it].”
Also, this erasing does not pertain to dying on the state of kufr [shaqawah] or dying on the state of Islam [sa^adah] . Al-Bayhaqiyy narrates from the route of Mujahid that he said about the interpretation of the Saying of Allah:
﴿فِيهَا يُفْرَقُ كُلُّ أَمْرٍ حَكِيمٍ﴾
[which means] “On that night, every definitive matter is distinguished,” “On the night of Qadr what would take place in the coming year would be clarified, such as provision or hardship. As for the confirmation of dying on a state of blasphemy or a state of belief, this is confirmed and it will not change.”
For this reason, the du^a’ that some people say in the month of Sha^ban is not authentic from the Prophet, which has in it: “O Allah, if you had written me in the Guarded Tablet as someone who will die as a blasphemer, then erase from me the name of being miserable and confirm for me the state of bliss [dying as a believer]; and if You wrote for me in the Guarded Tablet that I would be prevented from goodness and that my provision would be cut off, then erase for me that prevention from goodness and the cutting off of my provision, and confirm for me bliss and success in goodness. For certainly You said in Your Book [what means]: ‘Allah Erases whatever He Willed and He Confirms whatever He Willed and to Him belongs the Guarded Tablet.’” Nor is any other hadith of this sort confirmed from the Prophet, nor from ^Umar, nor from Mujahid, nor from anyone else from the Salaf, as is known from the book of Al-Qadar by Al-Bayhaqiyy.