And such guidance can only be attained through Allah’s guidance:

“Whoever Allah guides is truly guided; but whoever He leaves astray, you will never find for him a protecting guide.”

This verse demonstrates the falsity of the doctrine of the Qadariyyah, who claim that the servant does not depend upon Allah to attain this guidance. Rather, according to them, every servant possesses what enables both obedience and disobedience. They make no distinction in this respect between the believer and the disbeliever, and hold that Allah has not singled out the believer for guidance through which he becomes rightly guided. Their views are discussed at length elsewhere.

The point here is that every servant constantly needs to receive this guidance. As for the objection, “He has already guided them to faith, so there is no need for guidance,” and the response, “What is sought is the continuation of guidance,” both reflect a failure to understand the human condition and what people have been commanded to do.

For the reality of the straight path is that, at every moment, you fulfil what you have been commanded to know and do at that moment, refrain from what you have been forbidden, and acquire a firm resolve to perform what is commanded and a firm aversion that leads you to abandon what is forbidden. Such detailed knowledge and resolve cannot conceivably be acquired by the servant all at once. Rather, at every moment he needs Allah to place in his heart the knowledge and intentions by which he will be guided at that moment.

Certainly, he has received general guidance: that the Quran is true, that the religion of Islam is true, that the Messenger is true, and so forth. But this general guidance will not suffice him unless he receives detailed guidance concerning every particular matter that he undertakes or leaves aside—matters that bewilder