‘This is from you.’ Say, ‘All is from Allah.’ So what is the matter with these people that they can hardly understand any statement?”

“Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself.”

Some people suppose that the good and evil mentioned here mean acts of obedience and disobedience. They therefore dispute: one says, “Say, ‘All is from Allah,’” while the other says, “Good is from Allah, and evil is from yourself.” Both have misunderstood the verse, for what is meant here by good and evil is blessings and calamities, as in His words:

“And We tested them with good things and bad things so that they might return.”

That is, We tried and tested them with prosperity and adversity.

The meaning of the verse concerning the hypocrites is this: whenever something good befell them, such as victory, provision, or well-being, they would say, “This is from Allah.” But whenever something bad befell them—such as being beaten, illness, or fear of the enemy—they would say, “This is from you, O Muhammad! You are the one who brought this religion, because of which people have become our enemies and we have been afflicted with these calamities.” Allah Most High therefore said:

“So what is the matter with these people that they can hardly understand any statement?”

You only commanded them to do what is right and forbade them to do what is wrong. Whatever blessing befalls you—victory, well-being, or provision—is from Allah: a blessing He has bestowed upon you. Whatever evil befalls you—poverty, humiliation, fear, illness, or anything else of that kind—is from yourself, your sins, and your misdeeds. As He says in another verse:

“Whatever calamity befalls you is because of what your own hands have earned.”

And the Most High says:

“How is it that, when a calamity befell you, though you had inflicted twice as much, you said,