and He does not approve for His servants disbelief
ولا يرضى لعباده الكفر
He said:
“And if He wills it from some of them” This is good wording, meaning He does not approve of it, but He wills it. He wills it from some of them by the cosmic will, not the legislative will. This is a refutation of an innovated claim that says: Allah does not will except what He approves of, and as for what He does not approve of, He does not will it. According to this false claim, sins would occur without Allah’s will. There is no doubt that this is a claim invalidated by many texts, such as His saying, the Exalted:
So whoever Allah wants to guide - He expands his breast to [contain] Islam; and whoever He wants to misguide - He makes his breast tight and constricted as though he were climbing into the sky
فَمَنْ يُرِدِ اللَّهُ أَنْ يَهْدِيَهُ يَشْرَحْ صَدْرَهُ لِلْإِسْلَامِ وَمَنْ يُرِدْ أَنْ يُضِلَّهُ يَجْعَلْ صَدْرَهُ ضَيِّقًا حَرَجًا كَأَنَّمَا يَصَّعَّدُ فِي السَّمَاءِ
So Allah, Mighty and Majestic, wills this and that, but by which will?
The student: The cosmic will.
The Shaykh : The cosmic will, because all is His dominion, (Glorified and Exalted is He). Therefore, He said:
“And if He wills it from some of them” meaning that His will for some of them does not imply that He is pleased with it, for He may will what He does not approve of. If someone asks: How does He will what He does not approve of? Does anyone compel Him? We say: No, no one compels Him, but He wills what He does not approve of for a profound wisdom. If Allah the Exalted did not will except what He approves of, all people would have become believers, there would be no distinction between the believer and the disbeliever, the science of jihad would not have been established, nor enjoining good and forbidding evil, nor would the Fire have been filled as Allah, Mighty and Majestic, promised, nor would the other great benefits resulting from the existence of disbelief among Allah’s servants have occurred.
He said:
“And if you are grateful
وإن تشكروا
Allah and you believe He will approve it for you
يَرْضَه لكم
” If you are grateful
إن تشكروا
is the counterpart of
If you disbelieve
إن تكفروا
, because the human being, in the blessings of Allah, is between a disbeliever and a grateful one.
If you are grateful, He will approve it for you
إن تشكروا يرضه لكم
And He does not approve of disbelief for His servants. Consider how He said regarding disbelief that Allah is free and does not approve of it, whereas here He said:
And if you are grateful, He approves it for you
إن تشكروا يرضَه لكم
So in the answer to the condition in
If you disbelieve
إن تكفروا
, He began by explaining His freedom from creation, (Mighty and Majestic). As for gratitude, it is He who rewards it. Therefore, He said: If you are grateful, He will approve it for you. If He approves it, He will reward you. Allah, Blessed and Exalted is He, said:
(7) Indeed, they who have believed and done righteous deeds - those are the best of creatures. (8) Their reward with Allah will be gardens of perpetual residence beneath which rivers flow, wherein they will abide forever, Allah being pleased with them and they with Him.
إِنَّ الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَعَمِلُوا الصَّالِحَاتِ أُولَئِكَ هُمْ خَيْرُ الْبَرِيَّةِ * جَزَاؤُهُمْ عِنْدَ رَبِّهِمْ جَنَّاتُ عَدْنٍ تَجْرِي مِنْ تَحْتِهَا الْأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا أَبَدًا رَضِيَ اللَّهُ عَنْهُمْ وَرَضُوا عَنْهُ
Therefore, He rewarded them with the Gardens. I ask Allah to make me and you among them. Yes.
