Al-Ḥasan said, “They have entered the Fire, yet His praise still fills their hearts; they could find neither argument nor avenue against Him.”

For that reason the Exalted One says, “So the very last remnant of those who did wrong was cut off, and all praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds (45)” [al-Anʿām 6:45]. The clause here functions as a circumstantial qualifier: their roots were severed while He—glorified be He—was praised for it. Their eradication came hand-in-hand with His praise, for it is a destruction for which the Lord is lauded, owing to the perfection of His wisdom and justice and to His placing the punishment precisely where nothing else befits. He fixed it in the spot of which anyone who understands the matter would say, “Punishment suits none but this place, and nothing suits it but punishment.”

Likewise, after informing us of His judgment among His servants—the blessed bound for Paradise and the wretched for the Fire—He says, “The matter between them was decided in truth, and it was said, ‘All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds’ (75)” [al-Zumar 39:75]. The doer of the saying is omitted to imply universality: it is as though the entire cosmos proclaimed, “All praise belongs to Allah, Lord of the worlds (75),” when they witnessed the wisdom, justice, and grace of the Truth. For the same reason He says about the people of the Fire, “It was said, ‘Enter the gates of Hell’” [al-Zumar 39:72]—as though the whole creation uttered it, even their own limbs and souls, their earth and their sky.

He, exalted is He, also declares that when He destroys His enemies He saves His friends; He does not engulf them all in ruin by sheer will alone.

When Noah asked Him to spare his son, He replied that He would drown him because of his evil deed and disbelief; He did not say, “I drown him by My mere will and desire, without cause or sin!”

And He has guaranteed increased guidance for those who strive in His cause, and He did not state that