mercy and kindness, and of rewarding a good deed with its like and more. When punishment is put in that place, their innate nature and reason reject it most emphatically and find it utterly abhorrent.
The same applies to putting kindness, mercy, and honour in the place of punishment and retribution. Suppose someone were to approach a man who inflicts every kind of harm upon people—in their property, their families, and their lives—and lavish the greatest honour upon him, elevating and dignifying him. Sound human nature and reason refuse to approve of this and testify to the foolishness of whoever does it. This is the innate disposition with which Allah has created humanity.
Why, then, do reason and innate human nature not recognize His consummate wisdom, might, and justice in directing His punishment toward those most deserving of it? Why do they not recognize that, were blessings bestowed upon such people, those blessings would neither adorn nor befit them, and the contradiction of wisdom would be plain? As the poet said:
Allah’s blessings are beyond reproach,
Yet on some people they may seem unseemly.
Thus, Allah’s blessings neither befit nor adorn His enemies: those who turn people away from His path and strive against His good pleasure; those who are pleased when He is angry and angry when He is pleased; those who set aside His rulings and strive to direct the call to others instead of Him, to give judgment to others instead of Him, and to give obedience to others instead of Him. They oppose Him in everything He wills. They love what He hates and call others to it; they hate what He loves and drive others away from it. They ally themselves with His enemies, the creatures most hateful to Him, and support them against Him and His Messenger. As the Most High says:
25: 55 “Yet the disbeliever is ever an ally against his Lord.”
And He says:
18: 50 “And when We said to the angels, ‘Prostrate before Adam,’ they prostrated, except Iblīs. He was one of the jinn and rebelled against his Lord’s command. Will you then take him and his offspring as allies instead of Me, though they are enemies to you?”
Reflect, then, on what lies within this address, which captivates souls with its sweetness, punishment, majesty, and warning: how He begins it by telling us that He commanded Iblīs to prostrate before our father, but he refused, so He expelled him