Stages of creation and the decree

On the authority of Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd, may Allah be pleased with him, who said: The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, and he is the truthful, the one confirmed as truthful, told us: The creation of each of you is gathered in his mother's womb for forty days as a drop, then he is a clinging clot for the like of that, then a lump of flesh for the like of that; then the angel is sent to him and breathes the spirit into him, and he is commanded with four words: to write his provision, his life-span, his deeds, and whether he is wretched or blessed. By Allah, besides whom there is no god, one of you may do the deeds of the people of Paradise until there is only a cubit between him and it, then the writ overtakes him and he does the deeds of the people of the Fire and enters it. And one of you may do the deeds of the people of the Fire until there is only a cubit between him and it, then the writ overtakes him and he does the deeds of the people of Paradise and enters it.