to Him through it—does not affirm His freedom from evil in His essence, attributes, and acts. By contrast, the wording of the infallible Prophet, who is truthful and whose truthfulness is confirmed, affirms that He—glorified is He—is utterly free of any attribution of evil, whether to His essence, His attributes, His acts, or His names, even though evil is found among His creatures, as in His words:

“Say: I seek refuge in the Lord of daybreak, from the evil of what He has created.”

Consider how the Quran sometimes attributes evil to its cause and to those who commit it, as in His words:

2: 254 “It is the disbelievers who are the wrongdoers.”

5: 111 “Allah does not guide the defiantly disobedient people.”

4: 160 “Because of wrongdoing by those who were Jews.”

6: 146 “Thus We punished them for their transgression.”

43: 76 “We did not wrong them, but they themselves were the wrongdoers.”

Such instances in the Quran are far too numerous for even a hundredth of them to be mentioned here. The purpose is merely to give examples.

At other times, the agent is left unnamed, as in the Most High’s account of the believing jinn:

72: 10 “We do not know whether evil is intended for those on earth, or whether their Lord intends right guidance for them.”

They left unnamed the agent who intended the evil, while explicitly naming the One who intended right guidance.

A similar example occurs in al-Fātihah:

“The path of those You have blessed, not of those upon whom wrath has fallen, nor of those who have gone astray.”

Here, the blessing is attributed to Him, glorified is He; straying is attributed to those who stray; and the agent of wrath is left unnamed.

Likewise, al-Khidr said concerning the ship:

18: 79 “So I intended to damage it.”

But concerning the two boys, he said:

18: 82 “So your Lord intended that they should reach maturity and retrieve their treasure, as a mercy from your Lord.”

Another example is His saying:

49: 7 “But Allah has endeared faith to you and made it beautiful in your hearts, and has made disbelief, defiance, and disobedience hateful to you.”

He attributed this beloved act of making something beautiful to Himself. Yet He said:

3: 14 “Made beautiful to people is the love of desires—for women and children.”

Here, He left unnamed the agent who made them beautiful.

Likewise, Abraham, Allah’s intimate friend—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—said:

26: 78–82 “Who created me, and He guides me; who feeds me and gives me drink; and when I am ill, He heals me; who will cause me to die and then bring me to life; and who, I hope, will forgive my sin on the Day of Judgment.”