is no different from the worldly favors that disbelievers and brazen sinners enjoy—status, power, and wealth. Such gifts count as a genuine blessing only when they bring no harm to their owner in the Hereafter.

For this reason our own scholars and others have debated whether what the unbeliever receives can properly be called a “blessing” at all, though the disagreement is largely one of terminology.

Allah, Exalted be He, says:

“Do they suppose that the wealth and children with which We keep providing them
We are hastening for them in good things? No indeed; they do not perceive.”
(Qur’an 23:55–56)

He also says:

“When they forgot the warning that had been given them, We opened for them the gates of everything. Then, just as they were rejoicing in what had been granted them, We seized them suddenly, and there they were, plunged in despair.”
(Qur’an 6:44)

And in the hadith:

“When you see Allah bestowing favors upon a servant while he persists in sin, know that it is but a gradual enticement (istidrāj).”

A similar illustration appears in the matter of seeking refuge: a woman to whom the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—came to propose said, “I seek refuge in Allah from you.” He replied, “You have sought the refuge of the One who grants refuge,” and he turned away from her. Then it was said