Allah has guided to obey Him. For Allah Most High willed to turn to them in forgiveness and guide them, and so they were guided. Had He not willed this for them, they would not have been guided, as they said:

“Praise be to Allah, who has guided us to this! We would never have been guided had Allah not guided us. The messengers of our Lord certainly came with the truth.”

Yet the address in the verse is directed to all Muslims, just as in the verse on ablution and in His address to the people of the household:

“Allah only intends to remove impurity from you.”

This is why He threatens those who do not obey Him. Likewise, concerning fasting:

“Allah intends ease for you and does not intend hardship for you.”

This, then, is His legislative will, expressed through His commands, in the sense of love and approval—not His will to create, which necessarily brings about what is willed. If it were the latter, the verse would address only those who embraced ease and did what they were commanded to do, while those who failed to do so would fall outside the commands and prohibitions contained in the verse. But that is not the case. Rather, the legal ruling is binding upon all Muslims: whoever obeys is rewarded, and whoever disobeys is punished. Those who obeyed Him did so only through His guidance—the guidance of inward inspiration and assistance, by which He made them rightly guided—just as He is the One who makes the person who prays a praying person, and the Muslim a Muslim.

If the human will referred to here necessarily entailed the occurrence of what was willed, it would not have been said:

“Those who follow their desires want you to deviate far from the right path.”

For then the will of these people would have no effect; its existence and nonexistence would be the same. As in Noah’s words:

“My advice will not benefit you, even if I wish to advise you, if Allah wills to