by virtue of His promise, as all Muslims agree.

They have disagreed, however, over whether He is under any obligation apart from that, holding three views, as discussed earlier. One view is that no one has any binding right over Him apart from that. Another is that certain duties are binding upon Him and certain acts forbidden to Him, by analogy with His servants. A third is that He Himself has imposed obligations upon Himself and forbidden things for Himself: thus, whatever He has made binding upon Himself is binding upon Him, and whatever He has forbidden Himself is forbidden to Him, as established in the Sahīh through the hadith of Abū Dharr cited earlier.

All Muslims agree that injustice is impossible for Him, but they disagree over the nature of the injustice that cannot occur. One view is that it consists of what is impossible, and that anything He can possibly do cannot be injustice, because injustice means either disposing of another’s property or disobeying a command that one is obliged to obey, both of which are impossible for Him. Another view is that whatever constitutes injustice when done by His servants also constitutes injustice when done by Him. A third view is that injustice means putting something where it does not belong. He, glorified be He, does not wrong people in any way. The Most High says:

“But whoever does righteous deeds while being a believer will fear neither injustice nor deprivation.”

The Quranic commentators explained that injustice means having another person’s sins charged against him and being punished for sins he did not commit, while deprivation means having his good deeds diminished.

The Most High also says:

“Indeed, Allah does not wrong anyone even by an atom’s weight. If there is a good deed, He multiplies it and grants from Himself a great reward.”

“We did not wrong them, but they wronged themselves.”

As for the second matter, it may be said: whatever Allah and His Messenger have made clear to be a right that the servants have over Allah is