an admonition from your Lord, a healing for what is in the breasts, and a guidance and mercy for the believers” (Yunus 10:57).

He then says, “Allah guides with it those who pursue His pleasure to the paths of peace” (al-Māʾidah 5:16). The phrase “paths of peace” is the second object of the verb yahdi (“He guides”), for yahdi governs two objects: the first is “those who pursue [His pleasure]” and the second is “the paths of peace.”

In this verse the Exalted states, “Allah guides with it those who pursue His pleasure to the paths of peace,” even though the path of Allah is but one, as He also says: “Indeed, this is My straight path, so follow it; and do not follow the other paths lest they separate you from His path” (al-Anʿām 6:153). The reconciliation between the two verses is that the single path of truth branches into many offshoots—prayer, almsgiving, fasting, pilgrimage, jihad, filial piety, maintaining kinship ties, and the like. These are paths, yet they all converge upon a single way. Moreover, the plural “paths” is never used absolutely for Islam; rather, it is annexed, as in His words “the paths of peace.” Because they all lead to peace, they collectively constitute Islam.

His words, “and by His leave He brings them out of darkness into light,” refer to an immaterial light, for the Quran’s guidance is spiritual. He delivers them from the darknesses of ignorance and of intent: the darkness of ignorance is the absence of knowledge, and the darkness of intent is to possess knowledge yet neither seek the truth nor believe in it. Thus the light is the light of knowledge and the light of righteous action.

As for the phrase “by His leave” in the verse “Allah guides with it those who pursue His pleasure to the paths of peace and brings them out of darkness into light by His leave,” someone might ask: How can Allah say that He guides with it “by His leave” when He never guides except after