and drag your feet, then do not feel safe that Allah may come between you and your hearts, so that you are no longer able to respond—this as a punishment for having abandoned the response after the truth had become evident and manifest. It would then be like His words: “We shall turn their hearts and their eyes away because they refused to believe in it the first time” (6:110); and His words: “So when they swerved, Allah caused their hearts to swerve” (61:5); and His words: “So they were never going to believe in what they had already rejected” (7:101). The verse therefore warns against withholding the response of the heart even if the limbs outwardly comply.

The verse also contains another secret: it joins together the Law and the command to act upon it—the call to respond—with the Divine decree and belief in it. It is like His saying: “For whoever among you wishes to be upright (28), yet you do not will unless Allah, Lord of all the worlds, so wills (29)” (81:28-29), and His saying: “Whoever wishes may remember it (55), yet they will not remember unless Allah so wills” (74:55-56).

Allah knows best.

A Sublime Benefit

His, exalted is He, statement: “Fighting has been prescribed for you while it is hateful to you. It may be that you dislike a thing while it is good for you, and it may be that you love a thing while it is bad for you. Allah knows, and you do not know” (2:216).

And His statement: “If you dislike them, it may well be that you dislike something while Allah places in it abundant good” (4:19).

The first verse deals with jihad, which is the consummation of the irascible faculty, and the second with marriage, which is the consummation of the appetitive faculty.

A servant dislikes confronting his enemy with the force of his anger out of fear for himself, yet this thing he dislikes is better for him in both his worldly life and his afterlife. Conversely, he loves conciliation and avoidance, and this