CHAPTER FIVE

Except what Allah wills

  We have pointed out how the freedom granted by Allah to man is represented in the way man directs the energy created by Allah in his body towards obeying or towards disobeying, And we have mentioned that Allah (SWT) has given man the ultimate freedom to direct that energy towards what he wants so that judgment will be just. At this point we can find some people pausing at the noble verse where Allah says:   <<And We sent not a Messenger except with the language of his people, in order that he might make (The Message) clear for them. Then Allah misleads whom He wills and guides whom He wills. And He is the All-Mighty, the All-Wise>> Ayah 4 from Surat Ibrahim   And in His saying (TWT):   <<Thus Allah leads astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. And none ca know the hosts of your Lord but He>> Ayah 31 from Surat Al-Mudather   And there are a lot of verses in the noble Qur’an that we are going through in this chapter and they all confirm that Allah leads astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. If that is the truth where the will of Allah (Jalla Jallaloh) is what leads astray or leads to the right path, then how will the judgment be just? And do any of us hold anything in his hands against the divine will of Allah (SWT)?   First, we say that Allah (SWT) has the ultimate power in His universe for all the rulings of this universe are created by Allah (Jalla Jallaloh) and the creature can never control the will of his creator. That is why Al-Haqq (SWT) the creator of the universal laws has breached them for his prophets. He made the fire whose ruling is to burn, cool and peaceful for Ibrahim (PBUH) and He made the sea with its ruling to estetraq, splits for Moses (PBUH) and He gave Eissa (Jesus PBUH) with His own leave the ability to heal those who are born blind, the lepers and to resurrect the dead. Allah gave all those miracles to His prophets to strengthen their proclamation of Allah, but He (Azz wa Jall) did not want to limit the absolute power to his prophets only. For we can see that absolute power every day in watching the weak having victory over the strong, or the discriminated having victory over the compelling, or a powerless person having victory over the powerful.

The Absolute Power

  If anyone of us looks back to his life, he will find out that one day he must have out cried from within himself with the feel that God is Great, that God is around, or that God adjourns punishment but never disregards it. We do not say this except if we are watching an event where the divine power is absolutely obvious.  For if we reason what we are watching we will not say or feel the same because it will then be a normal thing. We do not say God is there when we see the strong having victory over the weak because what has happened is ruled by reason, the law that we see every day. The victory of the wrong doers over the oppressed people does not let us say that God adjourns and never disregards because it is also reasoned by the law, that we see daily when the oppressors have victory over the oppressed people. But we do not see the absolute power except in the injustice inflicted upon man. That is because the judgment in everything is postponed till the day of Resurrection. The only exception is the oppression of man, for Allah (Jalla Jallaloh) takes revenge from those who devour people’s rights in the worldly life so that the life is balanced and so that the people will know that there is a worldly revenge for injustice besides the hereafter revenge.   That is why Rasoul Allah (PBUH) says: (Beware the prayer of the person treated unjustly for there is no barrier between it and Allah. Allah lifts it over the clouds and says: <With My Might and Majesty I will give you victory even if it is after a long period of time>)

The meaning of Guidance

  But Allah’s Justice wanted to give man the freedom of choice in the course <Al-Manhaj>.  So with that freedom how do we say that He (SWT) leads whom He wills to the right course and leads astray whom He wills? Before we discuss that point we first need to know what is the meaning of the guidance <Al-Hoda>.  The guidance is the lead to the way, for when someone asks you about a specific direction, you tell him to go to a specific place then to go right or left to reach that direction as if you have guided him to it. And at the same time the guidance is used in the sense of facilitating the way. When someone asks about the way to go to a specific place and you tell him that there are two routes leading to that place and you advise him to take the second route because it is safe and illuminated while the first route is surrounded by danger and there is a lot of burglars in it making it unsafe, then by that you have not only led him to the way but you have also helped him to reach it safely.   The first type of guidance, leading to the right way is from Allah to all His servants. The prophets and messengers came to lead the people to the right path, the way to Allah’s course <Al-Manhaj>. To convey the message to the people upon who the messengers were sent, means to lead them to the way of guidance to Allah’s course and to show them the way that pleases Allah and the way that leads to Allah’s wrath and by clarifying that, the guidance reaches all the creatures. After the last of the messengers, Muhammad (PBUH), came with the message of Islam the nation of Mohammed was asked to lead the people to the way to Islam. That is to talk to the people about it and to show them what Islam has brought to them and if the Moslem nation does not do that then they will be accounted for it.   Let us consider the case when a man lives alone in a cave away from the whole world and no one has conveyed the course of Heaven to him. That man will not be accounted for on the day of Resurrection, yet the conveyance of Allah’s message is still valid up till now and the evidence for that are the orients (westerners), who try to find every possible way to defame the religion of Islam. This means that those orients have attained some knowledge about a religion and a course of Allah known to be the religion of Islam. But there are some people who know that there is an Islamic course and religion but they never care to know or read about that religion. Those people will be accounted for because man in every aspect of his daily life when he hears about anything that interests him, he starts asking and reading about it. If he wants to occupy a specific job, he will be totally prepared for it by joining the college that will qualify him for that position and he will start studying and reading from other references to add to his knowledge about that position. And also if a man wants to buy something, he will do a survey about all the competitor’s products in the market and do a price comparison before he selects one.   Even in the luxury events like the tourism for example, if a man would like to visit a specific country, he will read about it to know the popular places to visit and to choose a place to stay in during his visit. If that is the way with our daily life interests, then should we not give some more attention towards the most important aspect of our life, the religion of Allah, and towards worshiping Allah more and in a better way.   Absolutely, that should have been happening but some of us are interested in the most trivial aspects of life and if they hear about the religion of Allah that leads to the right path and that either sends man to lasting delights or enduring punishment, they will not listen to it and that is why they are accounted for.   So the guidance is the lead to Allah’s path so that the people know the religion of Allah, worship Him and obey Him in what He orders. But there is another way to Allah’s path and that is the help from Allah (SWT), which He made exclusive to His faithful believers. If a man is sincere in his belief, Allah will help him and will provide him with more guidance and in that Allah (SWT) says:   <<While as for those who accept guidance, he increases their guidance and bestows on them their piety>> Ayah 17 from surat Muhammad   And if you read what Al-Haqq (SWT) said to His messenger (PBUH)   << Verily you (O Muhammad PBUH) guide not whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills>> Ayah 56 from surat Al-Qassas   And if you also read what Allah (Jalla Jallaloh) says:   <<And verily, you (O Muhammad BPUH) are indeed guiding mankind to the Straight Path (i.e. Allah’s Reilgion of Islamic Monotheism)>> Ayah 52 from suurat Al-Shurah   We find that Al-Haqq (SWT) has affirmed the guidance to His messenger (PBUH) and that He has also disapproved him the guidance. Then how come can the messenger of Allah (PBUH) lead to the right path and still he cannot lead the people he loves to the right path? When you ask this question we say that you have not understood the meanings of the Qur’an. For the guidance that Al-Haqq (Jalla Jallaloh) has approved to his messenger (PBUH) is the leading guidance. Muhammad (PBUH) has led the people to the way of belief and to the way of obedience and he has clarified to them what brings Allah’s wrath and punishment. But the other guidance that Allah has disapproved from His messenger (PBUH) is the aiding guide in the way Allah (SWT) adds more guidance to everyone walking in the right path and how He facilitates their way and makes them more loving to their Faith.   That is why Al-Haqq (TWT) says about His Divine Entity:   <<But Allah has endeared the Faith to you and has beautified it into your hearts, and has made disbelief, wickedness and disobedience (to Allah and His Messenger PBUH) hateful to you. Such are they who are the rightly guided>> Ayah 7 from surat Al-Hogorat

Actual Intention and Prescribed Intension

  Allah (SWT) has an actual intension in His universe and because that intension is surely befalling, no one can withstand it. And He (Jalla Jallaloh) also has a prescribed intension in His universe, in the religion that He has established for the people. In that prescribed intension of Al-Haqq (SWT), He gave man the freedom to obey or to disobey. He gave them the freedom to follow or to withstand, and that prescribed intension in what to do and not what to do is what the servants of Allah withstand. But no one can ever withstand the actual intension in the deeds that take place in Allah’s universe, For that when you read what Al-Haqq (SWT) says:   << And as for Thamud, We showed and made clear to them the Path of Truth (Islamic Monotheism) through Our Messenger, (i.e. showed them the way of success), but they preferred blindness to guidance>> Ayah 17 from Surat Fussilat   Allah (SWT) showed Thamud the way to guidance and made it clear for them, but they preferred to disobey and withstood following Allah. Everyone can do the same through Allah’s will (SWT) by which He has created man free to choose how to apply the law of Allah (Shar’e Allah) or how to follow the path of sins. Allah (SWT) being merciful on us has clarified to us the consequences of following the way of guidance as well as the consequences of following the wrong path. It is His mercy (Jalla Jallaloh) that He made the key to Heaven and the key to Hell in our own hands. It is every one’s choice to walk the way of Heaven by having Faith in Allah (SWT) or to walk the way to Hell by disobeying Allah.   Allah (TWT) clarified to us what He is doing to those who take the road of Faith and to those who take road of sins and infidelity. For every one who reached the road of Faith and got what Allah has promised him, has got the will of Allah fulfilled in him. And everyone who chose the road of sins and infidelity and got what Allah has warned him, has also got the will of Allah fulfilled in him. The faithful will not get away from Allah’s will and the same with the wrong doer, he will not get away from Allah’s will. And the judgment in both cases is just, because man chooses with his free will the way to go, whether it is the way of belief or the way of sins and that is after Allah (Jalla Jallaloh) has clarified to him the consequences of taking each way.

NO Punishment except with a Text

  Allah (SWT) does not punish for a sin except after He first prohibits it. From there, the societies came up with the legal concept that there is no quilt implied without a text. For the text has to come first before a deed can be considered a guilty action. That is why after the noble versus (AL-Ayat Al-Karima) have been descended showing what Allah has prohibited, anyone doing those illicit acts would be considered guilty and entitled to punishment. And Allah (SWT) clarified to us what would happen to those who follow the path of Faith. He (Jalla Jallaloh) says:   <<While as for those who accept guidance, He increases their guidance and bestows on them their piety>> Ayah 17 from surat Muhammad   And He (SWT) says:   <<But Allah has endeared the Faith to you and has beautified it in your hearts, and has made disbelief, wickedness and disobedience (to Allah and His Messenger BPUH) hateful to you. Such are they who are the rightly guide>>. Ayah 7 from surat Al-Hujurat   And He (Jalla Jallaloh) says: <<Whoever brings a good deed (Islamic Monotheism and deeds of obedience to Allah and His messenger PBUH) shall have then times the like thereof to his credit>>

Ayah 160 from surat Al-An’am

  And His saying (TWT):   <<The likeness of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah, is as the likeness of a grain (of corn); it grows seven ears, and each ear has a hundred grains. Allah gives manifold increase to whom He wills. And Allah is All-Sufficient for His creatures’ needs, All-Knower>> Ayah 261 from surat Al-Baqarah   And many other noble versus that show the good that is awaiting the man that walks in the path of Belief. Moreover, Al-Haqq (SWT) clarified how He will help the believer and how He will reward him and facilitate his way. All that is in the worldly life and we are not talking about the Hereafter here for there is another book about that topic. Allah (SWT) says in a holy narration (Al-Hadith Al-Kodsi ): (I am up to my servant’s expectations and I am with him when he remembers Me. If he remembers Me in his soul I remember him in My soul. And if he remembers Me in a group, I remember him in a better group. And If he gets closer to Me by a length of a hand, I get closer to him by a length of an arm (twice as much) and if he gets closer to Me by the length of an arm, I get closer to him by the length of a ba’a (4 times as much). And if he came to Me walking, I come to him with a quicker pace)   All those blessing from Al-Haqq (TWT) for facilitating the way of Belief, Allah (Jallaa Jallaloh) mentioned them and clarified them and He determined the way, for if we took the way of Faith all those blessings are awaiting us. It is very important that we take the first step and after that we will get Allah’s help and aid (SWT). If we take the first step in believing and walked the road of Belief we will get all those graces (ISA) by the will of Allah. And if we take the road of infidelity and get away from Belief, Allah forbids, then what happens to us? Allah (SWT) says:   << And whoever takes Shytan (Satan) as a Wali (protector or helper) instead of Allah, has surely suffered a manifest loss>> Ayah 119 from surat An-Nisa’   And He (Jalla Jallaloh) says:   <<And recite (O Muhammad PBUH) to them the story of him to whom We gave our Ayat (proofs, evidences, versus, lessons, signs, revelations, etc.), but he threw them away; so Shytan (Satan) followed him up, and he became of those who went astray>> Ayah 175 from surat Al-A’raf   And His saying (TWT):   << And whosoever turns away blindly from the remembrance of the Most Gracious (Allah) (i.e. this Qur’an and worship of Allah), We appoint for Shytan (Satan- devil) to be a Qarin (a companion) to him>> Ayah 36 from surat Az-Zukhruf   And His saying (Azz wa Jall):   <<Verily, We made the Shayatin (devils) Auliya’ (protectors and helpers) for those who believe not>> Ayah 27 from surat Al-A’raf   And His saying (Sobhanoh):   <<Shall I inform you (O people!) upon whom the Shayatin (devils) descend? They descend on every great liar, sinful person>> Ayah 221,222 from surat Ash-Shu’ara     And many other versus in the noble Qur’an show us that Allah (SWT) abandons the non believer and leaves him to the devils (Shayatin) who adorn the false to him and drag him to the way of sins so that he becomes more guilty and more disobeying. And that will entitle him to the punishment and Allah will set a seal on his heart so that he never gets out of his infidelity and he might even be one of the human devils, Al-‘Eiazo be Allah, and all other things that Allah (SWT) has prepared for the infidels who are going astray.   For if you believe, you will enter the Will of Faith and Allah will give you all what is promised to the believers. And if you enter the Will of Infidelity, then you become with the devils (Shayatin) and in either case you do not get out of the Will, that is you do not get away from what Allah wills for the way to Faith and the way to Infidelity.

Whom Allah does not Guide

  Then Al-Haqq (SWT) clarified to us those whom He does not admit to his guiding will. Allah (Jalla Jallaloh) says:   <<And Allah does not guide the disbelieving people>> Ayah 264 from surat Al-Baqarah   And He (TWT) says:   <<And Allah guides not the people, who are Zalimun (wrong doers)>> Ayah 258 from surat Al-Baqarah   And His saying (Sobhanoh):   <<And Allah guides not the people who are Al-Fasiquin (the rebellious, disobedient to Allah>> Ayah 24 from surat At-Taubah   And His saying (Azz wa Jall):   <<Truly, Allah guides not him who is a liar, and a disbeliever>> Ayah 3 from surat Az-Zumar   And Al-Haqq (Sobhanoh) says:   <<Verily, Allah guides not one who is a Musrif (a polytheist, or a murderer who shed blood without a right, or those who commit great sins, oppressor, transgressor), a liar>> Ayah 28 from surat Ghafir   And by that Allah (SWT) showed us who is prevented his guidance. For if you are an infidel (Kafir) or a wrong doer (Zalim) or a disobedient to Allah (Fasiq) or a liar or a transgressor against your soul (Musrif), then Allah (TWT) will not guide you and guidance here means the help to reach the way of Faith and the help to increase that Faith. And Al-Haqq (Jalla Jallaloh) clarified that to us so that we get away from those things and stop doing them so that we end up entering Allah’s will of guidance.   And in both cases, you enter the will of Allah and you do not get out of it. If you choose to get away from the infidelity, the wrong doing and disobeying Allah then you enter to the will of Allah’s guidance. And if you take the road to infidelity, wrong doing and disobeying Allah then you will enter the will of Allah by not guiding you. So in both cases you do not get out of the Will and nothing will happen to you except what Allah wills for you, for there is no way out from Allah’s will in what ever choice you take.   This is the mere truth and you should know it so that you do not think that if you believe or if you disbelieve, you are getting out of the Divine Will with your Faith or with your Disbelief. All what has happened is that you either obeyed or disobeyed Allah’s prescribed intention and you did not leave of the Divine Will and you are not leaving it.   By that we have reached the point where everything happening is by Allah’s will (SWT) and truly Allah (Jalla Jallaloh) has created a leading guidance for all the people, the believing and the disbelieving. And He also created a helping guidance, and that is only for the true believers with which Allah increases their Faith. And Allah has showed us what He pleases for those who believe in Him and what He pleases for those who do not believe in Him, Al-‘Eiazo be Allah, and He clarified for us how He increases the Faith and guidance of the believer and how He abandons the infidel and leaves him to the devils (Shayatin) who beautify the sins to him and persuade him to disobey Allah and then He (SWT) seals his heart so that the disbelief stays and does not get out of his heart.   And you if you chose to believe or not to believe, what Allah pleases will happen to you, either by increasing your guidance or by following the devil (Al-Shytan). But in both cases you are entering the Divine Will and you are submitted to it, if you obey the prescribed will of Allah in His universe, then you will enter the Will and if you oppose and disobey Allah’s prescribed will in His universe, you will also enter the Divine Will.