As for the guidance that consists of divine enabling and the placing of faith in the hearts, it is Allah’s exclusive domain. Just as no one besides Allah creates, provides, gives life, or causes death, so too none besides Allah grants guidance.
• The difference between tabṣirah and tadhkirah, as in His statement, “as an insight and a reminder for every servant who turns in repentance” (Qaf 50:8), is that tabṣirah is knowledge of a matter and clear perception of it, whereas tadhkirah is to act upon that knowledge in belief and deed.
To make this clearer: sound, beneficial knowledge depends on three elements:
- First, reflection upon Allah’s recited and observable signs.
- Through such reflection a person grasps, in proportion to his understanding and intelligence, what he has contemplated; he recognises and comprehends it—this is tabṣirah.
- Once he knows, he puts that knowledge into practice. If the knowledge entails belief, he affirms it with his heart, acknowledges and confesses it; and if it calls for an inward, verbal, or physical action, he performs it. This is tadhkirah, the practical reminder whose outcome is to know the truth and follow it, and to recognise falsehood and avoid it.
• The difference between the Qur’anic passages that say people will not question or speak on the Day of Resurrection and those that describe their disputing, speaking, and addressing one another can be viewed from two angles:
- The first is that these verses are qualified by His words, “They will not speak except those to whom the Most Merciful grants permission, and who speak what is right” (al-Nabaʾ 78:38). Thus, any affirmation that people will speak on that Day is contingent upon Allah’s permission, while the negation of questioning and speech refers to the state in which no permission has been given.
- The second, mentioned by many exegetes, is that the Day of Resurrection comprises various conditions and stations: in some of them people will speak, and in others they will not. This angle does not contradict the first, for those very conditions and stations themselves follow from whether Allah allows them to speak or withholds permission.