, or accepting and responding, together with understanding.
Allah Most High says:
“Had Allah known any good in them, He would have made them hear.”
Then He says, “And if He had made them hear”—while they remained in their present condition, they would not have accepted the truth—then: “They would have turned away, refusing.” Thus, He condemns them for not understanding the Quran and for being unwilling to act upon it even if they understood it.
When someone says to another, “I ask you by Allah,” he is appealing to that person’s faith in Allah. This is a reason to grant the request of someone who makes such an appeal, for Allah, glorified is He, loves kindness towards His creation. This is especially so when the request is to refrain from wrongdoing, for He commands justice and forbids wrongdoing. His command is the greatest incentive to act: no cause has a stronger claim to bring about its effect than the command of Allah Most High.
A hadith narrated by Ahmad in his Musnad and by Ibn Mājah, from ‘Atiyyah al-‘Awfī, from Abū Sa‘īd al-Khudrī, states:
“The Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—taught anyone going out to prayer to say in his supplication: ‘And I ask You by the right that those who ask You have upon You, and by the right of this walk of mine. For I have not gone out in insolence or arrogance, nor to show off or seek a reputation. Rather, I have gone out to avoid Your wrath and seek Your pleasure.’”
If this is authentic, then the right that those who ask Him have upon Him is that He answer them, and the right that those who worship Him have is that He reward them. This is a right He has made binding upon Himself for their sake, just as He is asked by virtue of faith and righteous deeds, which He has made a means for supplication to be answered. As Allah Most High says:
“And He answers those who believe and do righteous deeds, and grants them more of His bounty.”
Likewise, He is asked by virtue of His promise, because His promise entails the fulfilment of what He has promised. An example is the believers’ words: