exalted is He:

“We inspired the mother of Moses: ‘Nurse him.’”

And He, Most High, said:

“And when I inspired the disciples to believe in Me and My Messenger, they said, ‘We believe, so bear witness that we are Muslims.’”

Since He has said:

“And your Lord inspired the bees…”

to the end of the verse, thereby stating that He inspires them, human beings are all the more fitting recipients of inspiration. He, Most High, also said:

“And He imparted to each heaven its command.”

And He, Most High, said:

“By the soul and Him who fashioned it, then inspired it with its wickedness and its righteousness.”

Thus He, glorified is He, inspires the soul with wickedness and righteousness. Wickedness comes through Satan, as an inspiration in the form of whispering, while righteousness comes through an angel, as an inspiration in the form of revelation. The former commands wickedness, while the latter commands righteousness; a command must necessarily be accompanied by an assertion.

In customary usage, however, the word “inspiration,” when used without qualification, does not mean whispering. This verse is among the indications that a distinction is to be made between revelatory inspiration and whispering. If what is commanded is mindfulness of Allah, it is revelatory inspiration; if it is wickedness, it is Satan’s whispering.

The criterion distinguishing praiseworthy inspiration from blameworthy whispering is therefore the Book and the Sunnah. If what is cast into the soul is something that the Book and the Sunnah identify as mindfulness of Allah, it is praiseworthy inspiration. If they identify it as wickedness, it is blameworthy whispering. This distinction holds consistently, without exception. Abū Hāzim mentioned a distinction between the whispering of the soul and that of Satan, saying:

“Whatever is disliked