does not contradict His words,

“Eat and drink with delight for what you sent ahead in days gone by” (Quran 69:24),

for the Messenger of Allah, blessings and peace be upon him, negated the bāʾ (the preposition bi) that signifies exchange or equivalence, while the Qur’an here affirms the bāʾ of causation.

As for the saying, “When Allah loves a servant, sins will not harm him,” its meaning is that when Allah loves someone He inspires him to repent and seek forgiveness, so he does not persist in sin. Whoever supposes that sins do not harm a person who continues in them is astray, opposing the Qur’an, the Sunnah, and the consensus of the early generations and the leading scholars. Indeed, “Whoever does an atom’s weight of good shall see it, and whoever does an atom’s weight of evil shall see it” (Quran 99:7–8).

The servants whom Allah commends are those described in His statement:

“Race toward forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden as wide as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the God-fearing: those who spend in prosperity and adversity, who restrain their anger and pardon people—Allah loves those who excel in doing good—and those who, when they commit an indecency or wrong themselves, remember Allah and ask forgiveness for their sins—for who forgives sins but Allah?—and who do not persist in what they have done while they know.” (Quran 3:133-135)

(To invoke predestination as an excuse for sin is a form of shirk.)

Whoever thinks that predestination provides a valid plea for sinners is of the same ilk as the polytheists about whom Allah said,

“The polytheists will say, ‘Had Allah willed, neither we nor our fathers would have practiced idolatry, nor would we have forbidden anything.’” (Quran 6:148)

Allah replied to them, “Thus…”