How to reconcile His saying, the Exalted: “And when a disaster strikes you, [O believers], for you had previously struck [the disbelievers] twice as much as what struck you, you said, ‘Where did this come from?’ Say, ‘It is from yourselves’”

The questioner : The verses are: ... from yourselves, and the verse: ; meaning, how do you reconcile the two verses?

The Shaykh In terms of divine decree, Allah’s decree precedes everything, whether it is good or evil. However, a person is responsible for the means he engages in that lead to what is disliked by the Shari'ah. Since these evils originated from a person by his own choice, they are from himself. This does not mean that they were not decreed upon him. The matter is as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . The belief held by the Muslims, the later generations following the earliest generations, is that the divine decree, its good and its evil, is from Allah, the Exalted. But when evil appears from a person, it is from his own earning and from his soul that commands evil. Therefore, in terms of divine decree, but a person is responsible for the evil deeds that issue from him.