—peace and blessings be upon him—: “War is deception.” 1 What is said about deception applies in exactly the same way to plotting. It is unlawful for a Muslim to deceive his fellow Muslim, but for a Muslim to deceive a disbeliever—the enemy of Allah and His Messenger—this is not forbidden; rather, it is obligatory. In the same vein, when a Muslim counters a disbeliever who is plotting against him—thereby nullifying the disbeliever’s scheme—this is a praiseworthy form of plotting. Here we have one human being and there another.

What, then, should we say of the Lord of all worlds, the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise? He brings the plots of every plotter to nothing, which is why He said, “Allah is the best of plotters.” By describing Himself with this attribute, our Lord—mighty and exalted—draws our attention to the fact that even among human beings plotting is not always blameworthy, for He said, “Allah is the best of plotters.” There is one who plots for good and another who plots for evil; whoever plots for good is not condemned. And Allah, exalted is He, has declared, “Allah is the best of plotters.”

In short: whatever you may imagine, Allah is entirely other than that. If a person conceives of something unbefitting Allah, he should know immediately that he is in error. This verse is pure praise of Allah, majestic and exalted, and it contains nothing that may not rightly be attributed to Him.