Surah al-Qasas (The Stories)

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful.

[Surah al-Qasas (28): verse 47]
“Otherwise, if a calamity befell them because of what their own hands had done, they would say, ‘Our Lord, why did You not send us a messenger, so that we might follow Your signs and be among the believers?’” (47)

The Most High thus states that what their hands had done before a messenger was sent was a cause for calamity to befall them. Had He, glorified be He, afflicted them with the calamity they deserved, they would have pleaded against Him that He had neither sent them a messenger nor revealed a scripture to them. He therefore removed this plea by sending the Messenger and revealing the Book, so that people would have no argument against Allah after the messengers had come. This explicitly establishes that their deeds before a messenger was sent were morally wrong, such that they deserved to suffer calamity on account of them. Yet He, glorified be He, does not punish until He has sent messengers. This is the decisive word on the matter.

The precise position concerning this great principle is that moral wrongness is inherent in the act itself, but Allah does not punish anyone for it until proof has been established through the message. This is the crucial point that both the Mu'tazilah and the Kullābiyyah missed. Each group was therefore able to press its case against the other, since neither brought these two truths together. The Kullābiyyah gained the upper hand over the Mu'tazilah because the latter affirmed punishment before messengers were sent and made punishment follow from moral wrongness discernible by reason alone. They were right to refute them on this point.