that Allah Most High is the Creator of His servants’ actions or has power over them, or that He singles out some of His servants for blessings that bring about their faith in Him and obedience to Him. They claimed that His blessing—which makes faith and righteous deeds possible—is the same for disbelievers such as Abū Lahab and Abū Jahl as it is for Abū Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthmān and ‘Alī. They likened this to a man giving his children money and dividing it equally among them: one group then originated their own righteous deeds, while the other originated their own corrupt deeds, without Allah having singled out the believers for any special blessing. This is a false view.
Allah Most High has said:
“They regard their acceptance of Islam as a favour to you. Say, ‘Do not regard your acceptance of Islam as a favour to me. Rather, Allah has favoured you by guiding you to faith, if you are truthful.’”
And He Most High has said:
“Know that among you is the Messenger of Allah. If he were to follow your wishes in many matters, you would fall into hardship. But Allah has endeared faith to you and made it beautiful in your hearts, and has made disbelief, wickedness and disobedience hateful to you. Those are the rightly guided.”
Allah has commanded us to say in our prayers:
“Guide us to the straight path—the path of those You have blessed, not of those who have incurred Your anger, nor of those who have gone astray.”
The people of Paradise will say:
“Praise be to Allah, who guided us to this. We would never have been guided had Allah not guided us.”
Allah’s intimate friend, may Allah’s blessings and peace be upon him, said:
“Our Lord, make us both submissive to You, and from our descendants a community submissive to You.”
He also said:
“My Lord, make me one who establishes prayer, and likewise my descendants.”
Allah Most High has said:
“And We made leaders among them, guiding by Our command, when they remained patient.”
And He has said:
“And We made them leaders inviting to the Fire.”
The texts of the Quran and Sunnah and the statements of the early generations of the Muslim community that explain these