with faculties not found in others. The absence of a faculty may give rise to actual illnesses in a person, alongside other manifestations of His wisdom. A proper understanding of this dispels the doubts surrounding this subject.

Among the passages that mention punishment for the absence of faith are His words, Most High:

“And We turn their hearts and eyes away, just as they did not believe in it the first time.”

This completes His statement:

“And what will make you realize that, even if it came, they would not believe?”

He thus states that this turning away happens to those who did not believe in it the first time. This is an absence of faith.

It may, however, be objected: “This comes after the Messenger, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, has called them. They have denied his message and abandoned faith, and these are things that actually occur.” Yet what necessitates punishment is the absence of faith; the things mentioned are conditions for punishment, as is the sending of the Messenger. A person may be distracted from faith by something that is permissible in itself, for which he deserves no punishment except because it distracted him from faith. Some maintain that the opposite of faith is abandoning it, that this abandonment is a positive act, and that faith has no opposite other than this.

The seventh distinction:

The evils that consist of calamities have no cause except a person’s sin, which comes from himself. The causes of whatever good comes to him, however, are innumerable, for it comes from Allah’s bounty, both through his deeds and apart from them. His deeds themselves are among Allah’s blessings upon him. Moreover, He, glorified be He, does not reward him merely in proportion to his deeds, but multiplies the reward. A person should therefore rely only upon Allah and turn only to Him.

He thus deserves unqualified, all-encompassing and complete gratitude. Others deserve gratitude only in return for the good Allah has brought about through them, as in the case of gratitude to one’s parents. Indeed, whoever does not thank people does not thank Allah. Yet neither anyone’s words nor his favors can justify thanking him by disobeying Allah, or obeying him in disobedience to Allah, for He alone is