“Your judgment over me is carried out; Your decree concerning me is just.”

This clause contains two points. First, His judgment is put into effect against His servant; second, it affirms His praise-worthiness and His justice, for to Him alone belong sovereignty and praise.

This is the very meaning of the words of the Prophet Hūd: “There is no creature but that He holds it by its forelock,” followed by, “Indeed, my Lord is on a straight path” (11:56). In other words, although He is the absolute Owner, the Irresistible who disposes of His servants, holding their forelocks in His hand, He is nonetheless upon a straight path—the path of perfect justice with which He deals with them. He is upon a straight path in His speech and His actions, His judgments and His decrees, His commands and prohibitions, and His rewarding and punishing. All His statements are true, all His decrees are just, every command of His is sheer benefit, and everything He forbids is pure harm. He rewards, out of His grace and mercy, those who deserve reward, and He punishes, out of His justice and wisdom, those who merit punishment.

He distinguished between ḥukm (judgment) and qaḍāʾ (decree), assigning execution to the judgment and justice to the decree.

His judgment, exalted is He, comprises both His religious-legislative judgment and His universal-predestinating judgment, and both kinds are effective and operative in the servant (1). The servant is subdued beneath the two judgments; they proceed in him and take effect whether he wills or not. The universal judgment cannot possibly be opposed, whereas the religious-legislative judgment may be contravened.

Since decree (qaḍāʾ) denotes completion and perfection—something that exists only after the judgment has proceeded and taken effect—he therefore said, “Your decree concerning me is just,” meaning: the judgment You have completed, perfected, and executed in Your slave is, from You, pure justice toward him.

As for judgment (ḥukm), it is what He rules; He may will its execution or He may choose not to execute it. If it is a religious judgment, it is carried out upon the servant, and if it is a universal one, then