The Meaning of Allah’s Saying: “We commanded its affluent ones, so they committed open sinfulness therein”
Machine translationRead the Arabic original
Question:
The Shaykh (may Allah preserve you) said: His saying, the Exalted, “And when We willed to destroy a city, We commanded its affluent ones to practice righteousness therein, but they committed open sinfulness therein”—is this a command to disobey?
Answer:
This is a decree of divine will, a decree of divine will; it is not a legislative command. “We commanded its affluent ones” is a command of divine will, just as He said:[Ya-Sin 36:82] “and it is He who causes death and life.” For the divine command is of two types: a cosmic command and a legislative command. So the command in “We commanded its affluent ones” is a cosmic, decreed command, not a legislative one. Yes.
The Shaykh (may Allah preserve you) said: His saying, the Exalted, “And when We willed to destroy a city, We commanded its affluent ones to practice righteousness therein, but they committed open sinfulness therein”—is this a command to disobey?
Answer:
This is a decree of divine will, a decree of divine will; it is not a legislative command. “We commanded its affluent ones” is a command of divine will, just as He said:
His command is only when He intends a thing that He says to it, "Be
إِنَّمَا أَمْرُهُ إِذَا أَرَادَ شَيْئًا أَن يَقُولَ لَهُ كُن
Source
شرح لمعة الاعتقاد [ صالح الفوزان ]، بداية من قوله : وقال تعالى : { ما أصاب من مصيبة في الأرض ولا في أنفسكم إلا في كتاب من قبل أن نبرأها } — islamhouse.com (51:56)
The Arabic text is a machine transcription of the audio recording.