and submission, so their hearts turned away from the Quran because of the ignorance and wrongdoing within them. He therefore requited them with another turning away, distinct from the first, just as He requited their hearts’ deviation from guidance with a further deviation. As He says:
“When they deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate.” [61:5]
Likewise, when a servant turns away from his Lord—glorified is He—He requites him by turning away from him, leaving him unable to turn toward Him. Keep the story of Iblīs in mind so that you may benefit from it fully. When he disobeyed his Lord Most High, refused to submit to His command, and persisted in this, Allah punished him by making him a caller to every sin. Thus, He punished his first act of disobedience by making him a caller to every sin and all its branches, minor and major. This aversion and disbelief became a punishment for his earlier aversion and disbelief. One punishment for an evil deed is another evil deed that follows it, just as one reward for a good deed is another good deed that follows it.
If it is asked: How can His condemnation of their turning away from Him be reconciled with this? Allah Most High says:
“How, then, are you turned away?”
And:
“How are they deluded?”
And He says:
“What is the matter with them that they turn away from the reminder?”
If He is the One who turned them away and made them averse and deluded, how can He reproach them for that?
The answer is: They are subject to His justice and His proof against them. He gave them the ability, opened the door for them, made the path clear, and provided the means. He sent His messengers to them, revealed His Books to them, and called them through His messengers. He gave them intellects with which to distinguish good from evil, benefit from harm, and the causes of ruin from the causes of success. He gave them hearing and sight. Yet they preferred desire to piety and chose blindness over guidance. They said:
“We prefer disobeying You to obeying You; associating partners with You is dearer to us than worshipping You alone; and worshipping others besides You is more beneficial to us in our worldly life than worshipping You.”
Their hearts thus turned away from their Lord, Creator, and Sovereign, abandoning obedience to Him and love for Him. This, then, is His justice toward them, and that is His proof against them. They closed the door of guidance upon themselves willingly and by their own choice, so He closed it upon them so that they could not reopen it. Thus He left them to what they had chosen for themselves, gave them over to what they had abandoned, and enabled them