As for the first category, the verse unquestionably encompasses it, as indicated by its wording, context, meaning, and the statements of the early generations. As for the second meaning, it is certainly not intended to the exclusion of the first. It may, however, be said that it is intended alongside the first, insofar as the obedience to which Allah guides a person is a blessing from Allah that has come to him. Whatever disobedience he commits is an evil that has befallen him, and it is his own self that committed the evil deed.

If the recompense stems from his own self, then the deed that incurred that recompense must all the more stem from his own self. Thus, there is no contradiction in both the evil deed and the evil suffered in recompense stemming from his own self, even though all of it is decreed, as explained earlier.

It has been reported through Mujāhid from Ibn ‘Abbās that he used to recite:

“Then it is from yourself, and I have decreed it for you.”

Section

A second act of disobedience may be a punishment for the first. It would thus be an evil suffered in recompense while also being an evil deed. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said—in the hadith whose authenticity is agreed upon—