any argument. Rather,

“To Allah belongs the conclusive argument. Had He willed, He would have guided you all.”

Every blessing from Him is a grace, and every affliction from Him is just. The servant must believe in predestination, but he may not invoke it as an argument against Allah. Belief in it is guidance, whereas invoking it as an argument against Allah is misguidance and error. Rather, belief in predestination requires the servant to be steadfastly patient and deeply grateful: patient in adversity and grateful in prosperity. When he receives a blessing, he knows that it is from Allah and thanks Him, whether that blessing is a good deed he has performed or some benefit attained through his efforts. It is Allah who facilitates the performance of good deeds, and He who graciously rewards them. To Him, therefore, belongs all praise for all of this.

When a calamity befalls him, he bears it patiently, even if it has come at another person’s hands. It is Allah who gave that person power over him and created that person’s actions, and the calamity had been decreed for the servant. As the Most High says:

“No calamity befalls the earth or yourselves except that it is recorded in a Book before We bring it into being. That is surely easy for Allah.”

“So that you may not grieve over what has escaped you, nor exult over what He has given you.”

And the Most High says:

“No calamity befalls except by Allah’s permission. And whoever believes in Allah, He will guide his heart.”

They said: “This is the man whom a calamity befalls, who knows that it is from Allah and so accepts it and submits.”

When the servant sins, he must seek forgiveness and repent, rather than invoke predestination as an argument against Allah. He must not say, “What blame is mine when this sin was predestined for me?” Rather, he must know that he himself is the sinner, the disobedient one who committed the sin, even though all of this occurs by Allah’s decree, predestination, and will. For nothing comes to pass except through His will, power, and creation. Yet it is the servant who consumed what was unlawful and committed the indecent act,