Our punishment.﴿ [al-An‘ām: 148]. Had they possessed any valid argument, they would not have tasted Allah’s punishment and would have been spared it. But they have no valid argument, and that is why they tasted Allah’s punishment.

We all know that if a person were told of one country that was safe and secure, receiving abundant provision from every place, and offering commerce and opportunities for gain unavailable elsewhere, and of another country that was dangerous and unstable, with economic turmoil and disturbed security, which of the two would he go to? He would certainly go to the first, without a doubt. He would not consider anyone to have compelled him to go there; rather, he would see that he went entirely of his own volition.

The same applies today to the path of good and the path of evil. Allah has made it clear to us: this is the path to Hell and this is the path to Paradise. He has also made clear the bliss that awaits in Paradise and the punishment that awaits in the Fire. Which path, then, should we take? By this clear and evident comparison, we would undoubtedly take the path to Paradise, just as, in the preceding example, we would take the road to the secure country that receives abundant provision from every place.

If we were to take the path to the Fire, we would deserve reproach, rebuke, and blame, and would be denounced as foolish. Likewise, if in the first example we took the road to the dangerous, unstable country where there was no security, everyone would blame and rebuke us.

Thus, the words, ﴾for whoever among you wills to take the straight path﴿, affirm that a person acts by his own will and choice. Yet after he wills and does something, we know that Allah had already willed it; had Allah willed otherwise, he would not have done it.

A person often resolves to do something and sets out to do it, only to find himself, a moment later, turning away from it or being diverted from it because Allah did not will it. We may often intend, for example, to go to the mosque to listen to a lecture, only to turn back for some reason or for no apparent reason. Sometimes there is a reason: we remember that we have some task to attend to, so we return. At other times we turn back for no reason; before we know it, Allah the Exalted has turned our resolve away from it, and so we return. It is for this reason that