is the Accepting of Repentance, the Merciful.”

Whoever seeks forgiveness and repents follows Adam’s example and is blessed; whoever persists and invokes divine decree as an excuse follows Iblīs’s example and is wretched. Allah Most High said to Iblīs:

“I will surely fill Hell with you and those of them who follow you, all together.”

Many who delve into realities have gone astray on this point. They pursue various kinds of realities that they experience and taste, and invoke divine decree as an excuse for violating Allah’s commands. They thus resemble the polytheists who used to invent a religion that Allah had not prescribed and invoke divine decree to justify disobeying Him.

(The third group) of those who have gone astray concerning divine decree consists of those who dispute with the Lord over His combining divine ordainment and decree with commands and prohibitions—as in the accounts they give in Iblīs’s voice. These are Allah’s adversaries and enemies.

As for the people of faith, they believe in divine ordainment and decree, and in commands and prohibitions. They do what is commanded, refrain from what is forbidden, and patiently bear what is decreed. As Allah Most High says:

“Indeed, whoever fears Allah and is patient—Allah does not let the reward of those who do good go to waste.”

Fearing Allah encompasses doing what is commanded and refraining from what is forbidden, while patience includes patiently bearing what is decreed. When a calamity strikes them on earth or in their own persons, they know that it is recorded in a Book, that whatever has befallen them could never have missed them, and that whatever has missed them could never have befallen them. They therefore submit the matter to Allah and patiently bear the trials He puts them through. But when Allah’s command comes, they hasten to good deeds and race toward