—the Most Beautiful Names. For example, He says:

“Yet if they return, then Allah is All-Forgiving, Merciful (226); but if they resolve on divorce, then Allah is All-Hearing, All-Knowing (227)” ⦗al-Baqarah 2:226–227⦘.

From this we learn that fayʾah (returning to one’s wife) is beloved to Allah, that He forgives and shows mercy to the one who returns, and that divorce is detested by Him. As for the muʾlī (the husband who has sworn an oath of abstention) who then divorces, Allah—exalted is He—will recompense him for both the cause, namely īlāʾ (the oath itself), and the effect, that is, the consequences that followed.

A similar case is His statement:

“Except for those who repent before you overcome them—then know that Allah is All-Forgiving, Merciful” ⦗al-Māʾidah 5:34⦘;

meaning that, once you know this, you lift from them the punishment that pertains to Allah’s right. Examples of this are many.

At other times Allah states the ruling outright and then explains it by mentioning the Most Beautiful Name that best suits the context.

Benefit: In His words, “Eat and drink, but do not be wasteful; indeed, He does not love the wasteful” ⦗al-Aʿrāf 7:31⦘, Allah has combined numerous matters that benefit a person’s religion, body, present condition, and ultimate end:

• The command to eat and drink denotes obligation; a servant is not legally permitted to abstain from them, just as he is not physically able to do so while sound of mind.

• Eating and drinking with the intention of obeying Allah’s command become acts of worship.

• The default ruling for all foods and drinks is permissibility, except what the Lawgiver has explicitly forbidden because of its harm, for the verse is unrestricted.

• Each person should eat what benefits, suits, and befits him—whether rich or poor, healthy or ill, accustomed to certain foods or not—for Allah left the food unspecified and revealed the verse to guide His servants to what profits them; hence it points to all of this.