by coming to faith while the other did not?” If they say, “Through his own will and power,” they are told: “If the unbeliever possesses the same, there is no basis for that distinction. But if he does not, then the believer has been singled out for means of guidance that the unbeliever has not received.”

Moreover, Allah is asked in every prayer for guidance to the straight path. Yet He has already provided the guidance shared by believer and unbeliever—indeed, according to their view, He is obliged to provide it. What, then, remains to be sought through supplication?

Furthermore, Allah, Most High, says:

“Know that the Messenger of Allah is among you. Were he to obey you in many matters, you would fall into hardship. But Allah has endeared faith to you, made it pleasing in your hearts, and made disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience hateful to you”—to the end of the verse.

He thus makes clear that He has endeared faith to the believers, made it pleasing in their hearts, and made disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience hateful to them.

The Qadariyyah among the Muʿtazilah and the Shia interpret this as meaning that He has endeared faith to everyone morally accountable and made it appealing through the evidence He has shown of its goodness, and made disbelief hateful through the evidence He has shown of its evil.

They are told in reply: Both the beginning and the end of the verse address the believers. At its beginning, He says:

“Know that the Messenger of Allah is among you. Were he to obey you in many matters, you would fall into hardship.”

At its end, He says:

“Those are the rightly guided.”

He thus makes clear that those to whom He has endeared faith and made disbelief hateful are the rightly guided. The unbelievers are not rightly guided. Had He done for the unbelievers what He did for these believers, it would not be fitting for Him to remind them of His favor in terms implying that He had singled them out for it.