or diminished. He added, “For Allah says, al-qawlu ladayya (1) – ‘the word is with Me’ – and He did not say, ‘My word.’ It is like the statement, ‘No one can lie in my presence.’
According to the first view, therefore, His words, wa-mā anā bi-ẓallāmin li-l-ʿabīd (29) [Qaf: 29] – ‘I am not unjust to My servants’ – are, in meaning, part of His declaration, mā yubaddalu al-qawlu ladayya – ‘No word can be altered in My presence.’ In other words, whatever I have said and promised must inevitably come to pass; yet it is pure justice, containing neither oppression nor inequity.
On the second view He describes Himself with two attributes:
- The perfection of His knowledge and all-encompassing awareness prevents any alteration of speech before Him or the passing off of falsehood upon Him; and ⦗2⦘ (2) the perfection of His justice and His self-sufficiency keeps Him from wronging His servants.
He then speaks of the vastness of Hell: whenever something is cast into it, it will say, hal min mazīd (30) [Qaf: 30] – “Is there more?” Those who claim that this is a negation, meaning, “There is no more room in me” (3), are mistaken, and an authentic hadith refutes that interpretation (4).
Next He tells of Paradise being brought near to the God-fearing, and that its people are those who possess four qualities.
The first (5) is to be awwāb – one who constantly returns to Allah: from sin to obedience, from heedlessness to remembrance. ʿUbayd ibn ʿUmayr said, “The awwāb is the one who…"