“This is from Muhammad, because of the religion he has brought.” For the disbelievers attribute the calamities that befall them to the actions of the believers.

He mentions something similar in the account of Moses and Pharaoh. He, Most High, says:

“We afflicted Pharaoh’s people with years of drought and shortages of crops, so that they might take heed. When good came to them, they said, ‘This is our due.’ But when misfortune befell them, they regarded Moses and those with him as an evil omen. Surely their fate is with Allah.”

Similarly, He, Most High, says in Surah Yā Sīn:

“They said, ‘Our Lord knows that we have indeed been sent to you, and our duty is only to convey the message clearly.’ They said, ‘We regard you as an evil omen. If you do not desist, we will surely stone you, and you will suffer a painful punishment at our hands.’”

Thus Allah, Most High, tells us that the disbelievers regarded the believers as an evil omen: whenever affliction befell them, they blamed the believers for it, while whatever good came to them they regarded as theirs from Allah, Mighty and Majestic. He, Most High, therefore said:

“What is the matter with these people that they can hardly understand what they are told?”

Allah, Most High, has sent down the finest discourse. Had they understood the Quran, they would have known that Allah commanded them to do what is right and forbade them to do what is wrong: He commanded good and forbade evil. Nothing in the message with which Allah sent His messengers is therefore a cause of evil. Rather, evil results from people’s sins. He, Most High, said:

“Whatever good befalls you is from Allah.”

That is, whatever victory, provision or well-being comes to you is from Allah, as a blessing He has bestowed upon you. Even if it comes through your righteous deeds, He is the One who guided you, helped you, eased your way to ease, bestowed faith upon you, made it pleasing to your heart, and made disbelief, wickedness and disobedience hateful to you.

At the end of the authentic hadith narrated by Abū Dharr from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, who relates it from his Lord, Blessed and Most High, He says: “O My servants, these are but your deeds, which I record for you