115, 116. “Whoever opposes the Messenger after guidance has become clear to him and follows a path other than that of the believers, We shall leave him to what he has chosen and make him burn in Hell—what an evil destination! * Indeed, Allah does not forgive associating partners with Him, but He forgives anything less than that for whomever He wills. Whoever associates partners with Allah has certainly strayed far away.”
That is, whoever defies the Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—and stubbornly resists what he brought “after guidance has become clear to him” through Quranic proofs and prophetic evidence,
“and follows a path other than that of the believers”—their path being their way in beliefs and deeds—“We shall leave him to what he has chosen.” That is, We leave him to what he has chosen for himself and forsake him, granting him no success in attaining good. Since he saw and recognized the truth but abandoned it, his just recompense from Allah is that He leave him wandering in his misguidance, adding further misguidance to his own.
As the Most High says: “When they deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate.” He also says: “We turn their hearts and eyes away, as they refused to believe in it the first time.”
Conversely, the verse implies that if someone does not oppose the Messenger but follows the path of the believers—seeking Allah’s countenance, following His Messenger, and adhering to the community of Muslims—and then commits or contemplates sins arising from the impulses of the soul and overpowering natural inclinations, Allah does not leave him to himself and his devil. Rather, He reaches him with His grace, bestows His protection upon him, and guards him from evil. As the Most High says concerning Joseph—peace be upon him: “Thus We turned evil and indecency away from him. He was truly one of Our sincere servants.” That is, because of his sincerity, We turned evil away from him. The same applies to every ⦗203⦘ sincere person, as indicated by the generality of the reason given.
His words, “and make him burn in Hell,” mean that We shall subject him there to a tremendous punishment. “What an evil destination!” means an evil place of return and final abode.
This warning, which is attached (1) to opposing the Messenger and departing from the way of the believers, has degrees known only to Allah, according to whether the sin is minor or grave. Some forms of it lead to eternal residence in the Fire and entail complete abandonment, while others are less serious than that. Thus, perhaps the second verse serves as a detailed explanation of this unrestricted statement.
The explanation is that Allah Most High does not forgive associating partners with Him, because this entails denigrating the Lord of the worlds and His oneness, and equating a created being—which controls neither harm nor benefit even for itself—with the One who controls all benefit and harm, from whom every blessing comes, who alone repels afflictions, and who possesses absolute perfection in every respect and complete self-sufficiency in every regard.
Thus, among the greatest injustices and the most extreme forms of misguidance is failing to devote worship exclusively to the One whose attributes and greatness are such, and directing any part of it to a created being that possesses no attribute of perfection or self-sufficiency. Indeed, in its own right it has nothing but privation—no existence, perfection, or self-sufficiency of its own—and it is needy in every respect.
As for sins and acts of disobedience less serious than associating partners with Allah, they are subject to His will. If Allah wills, He forgives them through His mercy and wisdom; and if He wills, He punishes them through His justice and wisdom. This noble verse has also been cited as evidence that the consensus of this community is an authoritative proof and that the community is protected from error.
The basis for this inference is that Allah threatens whoever departs from the path of the believers with abandonment and the Fire. The phrase “the path of the believers” contains a singular noun in a possessive construction and therefore encompasses everything the believers follow in their beliefs and deeds. If they agree that something is obligatory, recommended, prohibited, disliked, or permissible, then that is their path. Whoever opposes them in any of these matters after their consensus has been established has followed a path other than theirs. This is also indicated by the words of the Most High: “You are the best community ever raised for humanity: you enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong.”
The inference from this verse is that Allah Most High states that the believers of this community enjoin only what is right. Therefore, if they agree that something is obligatory or recommended, it is among the things they enjoin, and the explicit wording of the verse necessarily establishes that it is right. Beyond what is right there is only what is wrong. Similarly, if they agree to forbid something, it is among what they forbid and can only be wrong.
The same is indicated by the words of the Most High: “Thus We have made you a middle community so that you may be witnesses over humanity.” The Most High states that Allah has made this community a middle community—that is, just and excellent—so that they may be witnesses over humanity in every matter. Therefore, when they testify concerning a ruling that Allah has commanded, prohibited, or permitted it, their testimony is protected from error because they possess knowledge of that to which they testify and are just in their testimony. Were the matter otherwise, they would neither be just in their testimony nor possess knowledge of it.
Likewise, the words of the Most High, “If you disagree over anything, refer it to Allah and the Messenger,” imply that when they do not disagree over a matter but reach agreement on it, they are not commanded to refer it back to the Quran and Sunnah. This can only be because it accords with the Quran and Sunnah and cannot contradict them.
These and similar proofs conclusively establish that the consensus of this community is a decisive authority. For this reason, Allah exposed the ugliness of the polytheists’ misguidance by saying:
(1) B reads: “resulting from.”