His will alone, and nothing else, necessitates a thing’s existence; its absence therefore entails the thing’s absence. Nothing comes to be unless He wills it; under no circumstances can anything come to be without His will. There is, then, no cause necessitating a thing’s existence such that His will would prevent it from existing. Rather, His will is the complete cause: when it is present, there is no impediment, and when it is absent, there is no productive cause.

“Whatever mercy Allah grants to people, none can withhold; and whatever He withholds, none can release thereafter.”

“If Allah touches you with harm, none can remove it except Him; and if He intends good for you, none can repel His bounty.”

“Say, ‘Have you considered those you invoke besides Allah? If Allah intends harm for me, can they remove His harm? Or if He intends mercy for me, can they withhold His mercy?’ Say, ‘Allah is sufficient for me. In Him those who trust place their trust.’”

And once it is understood that the servant has no good whatsoever of himself—rather, whatever blessing we have is from Allah, and when harm touches us, it is to Him that we cry out, and all goodness is in His hands—as He says:

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

And He says:

“When a calamity befell you, although you had inflicted twice as much, did you say, ‘How has this happened?’ Say, ‘It is from your own selves.’”

The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said in the foremost supplication for forgiveness, recorded in Sahīh al-Bukhārī:

“O Allah, You are my Lord; none has the right to be worshipped but You. You created me, and I am Your servant. I abide by Your covenant and promise as best I can. I seek refuge in You from the evil of what I have done. I acknowledge Your blessing upon me, and I acknowledge my sin. So forgive me, for none forgives sins but You.”

And he said in the opening supplication of the prayer, recorded in Sahīh Muslim: