Then the Almighty said: “That is better and more conducive to the finest outcome (59).” In other words, this command I have given you—to obey Me, My Messenger, and those in authority (1), and to refer whatever you dispute about back to Me and to My Messenger—is better for you in your worldly life and in the Hereafter. It is your happiness in both abodes; indeed, it is better for you and yields the most excellent end.

This shows that obedience to Allah and His Messenger, and making Allah and His Messenger the final judge, is the cause of happiness both immediate and ultimate.

Whoever reflects upon the world and the evils that occur within it realizes that every evil on earth is due (2) to contravening the Messenger and turning away from his obedience, and that every good in the world is (3) the result of obeying the Messenger. Likewise, the evils of the Hereafter—its pains and punishments—are (4) the inevitable consequences of opposing the Messenger. Thus all the miseries of this life and the next go back to disobeying the Messenger and what that entails; and if people were to obey the Messenger as they ought, no evil would ever appear on earth.

Just as this is evident with respect to the large-scale calamities and afflictions that befall the earth, so it is with the harm, pain, and anxiety that strike an individual person—these, too, arise only from disobeying the Messenger, whereas obedience to him (5) is the impregnable fortress