the outcomes of all affairs, and to be content with whatever He chooses and decrees for him, trusting that this will lead to a praiseworthy end.

Among the further lessons it teaches is that the servant must not make proposals to his Lord, prefer his own choice over His, or ask for something of which he has no knowledge. What he seeks may in fact contain his harm and ruin while he is unaware. Therefore he should choose nothing for himself over what his Lord chooses; rather, he should ask Allah to choose well on his behalf and to make him pleased with that choice—and nothing could be more beneficial to him than this.

Another lesson is that when he entrusts the matter to his Lord and is satisfied with what Allah selects, Allah supplies him with the strength, resolve, and patience required for that choice, wards off the calamities that usually accompany a servant’s self-chosen course, and allows him to witness good outcomes he could never have attained through his own planning.

A further benefit is that this delegation frees him from the exhausting thoughts that arise when weighing alternatives, and empties his heart of the conjectures and schemes that make him ascend one hill and descend another—while, in any case, he cannot escape what has been decreed for him. If he accepts Allah’s choice, destiny reaches him while he is praised, thanked, and treated kindly within it; if not, destiny still reaches him, but he is blamed and shown no kindness, for he insisted on choosing for himself.

Whenever his delegation and contentment are genuine, mercy and gentleness envelop him within what is decreed: Allah’s mercy shields him from what he fears, and His gentleness makes the decree easy to bear.

When destiny presses upon a servant, one of the main reasons it does so with full force is his own scheming to repel it. Nothing benefits him more than surrendering, throwing himself before the decree like a lifeless body—for even a beast of prey will not consent to devour carrion.