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and to testify that He has not consigned people’s deeds to anyone else, and that human beings will inevitably arrive at what they were created for and at what the divine decrees have ordained.
I then said to him, “Suppose someone acknowledges all of this yet declares, ‘The choice is mine: if I wish, I believe, and if I wish, I do not believe,’ using as proof the Almighty’s words, ‘So whoever wills—let him believe, and whoever wills—let him disbelieve’ (Quran 18:29).”
He replied, “That is only his own presumption. Do you not see the Most High’s statement: ‘No indeed! It is but a reminder; so whoever wills may remember. Yet they will not remember except as Allah wills’ (Quran 74:54–56)?”
وَتشهد انه لم يُفَوض الْأَعْمَال الى اُحْدُ وَالنَّاس صائرون الى مَا خلقُوا لَهُ والى مَا جرت بِهِ الْمَقَادِير فَقلت لَهُ رَأَيْت إِن أقرّ هَذَا كُله لكنه قَالَ الْمَشِيئَة إِلَيّ إِن شِئْت آمَنت وَإِن شِئْت لم اؤمن لقَوْله تَعَالَى
{فَمن شَاءَ فليؤمن وَمن شَاءَ فليكفر}
فَقَالَ ذَلِك فِي زَعمه أَلا ترى الى قَوْله تَعَالَى
{كلا إِنَّه تذكرة فَمن شَاءَ ذكره وَمَا يذكرُونَ إِلَّا أَن يَشَاء الله}