and deception until, once a woman is in their hands, they rape her. Such a person is a brigand who acts by treachery, as al-Suddī said, and he too is to be put to death. If they are a group operating within a town, they are like brigands operating within a town. These questions are discussed elsewhere.

The point is that Allah has declared that His established way will neither be altered nor changed. His established way is His customary practice, whereby He treats a thing as He treated its like in the past. This entails that He, glorified is He, passes similar judgments on similar matters. Hence He says:

“Are your disbelievers better than those?”

And He says:

“Gather those who did wrong and their counterparts”—that is, those who resemble them and are their equals.

And He says:

“And when the souls are paired”—He pairs each with its counterpart.

Allah Most High also says:

“Or do you think you will enter Paradise without experiencing the like of what befell those who passed away before you?”

And He says:

“You have a good example in Abraham and those with him, when they said to their people, ‘We are free of you and whatever you worship besides Allah. We reject you, and enmity and hatred have arisen between us and you forever.’”

And He says:

“The foremost, the first of the Emigrants and the Helpers, and those who followed them in goodness—Allah is pleased with them, and they are pleased with Him. He has prepared for them Gardens beneath which rivers flow, where they will abide forever. That is the supreme triumph.”

Thus He made those who follow them in goodness share with them in the divine pleasure and Paradise mentioned here. Allah Most High has also said:

“And those who believed afterwards, emigrated, and strove alongside you—they are of you.”

And Allah Most High says:

“And those who came after them say,