and His Messenger know best.” He said:

“His right over them is that they worship Him and associate nothing with Him. Do you know what the servants’ right over Allah is if they do that?” I said, “Allah and His Messenger know best.” He said: “Their right over Him is that He not punish them.”

Another example is his statement in several hadiths: “It is incumbent upon Allah to do such-and-such for him.” This right incumbent upon Him is one He Himself has established by His own word.

Parallel to His forbidding something to Himself and making something obligatory upon Himself are His declarations that He has sworn to do something, and His word that has already gone forth, as in His statements:

“Were it not for a word that had already gone forth from your Lord”;

“I will surely fill Hell”;

“We will surely destroy the wrongdoers”;

“So those who emigrated, were driven from their homes, suffered harm in My cause, fought and were killed—I will surely absolve them of their misdeeds and admit them into gardens beneath which rivers flow”;

“Then We will surely question those to whom messengers were sent.”

These and similar oath formulas convey obligation; their import differs from that of an oath conveying a mere statement of fact. Hence the jurists say: an oath either establishes a right or a prohibition, affirms something as true, or declares it false.

It is intelligible that a human being can be both the one giving a command and the one receiving it, as in His statements:

“Indeed, the soul persistently urges evil”;

“But as for one who feared standing before his Lord and restrained his soul from desire.”

Yet the servant has someone above him who commands and forbids him. It is therefore all the more fitting to conceive of the Lord, above whom there is no one, as Himself the One who commands and prescribes mercy for Himself, and the One who forbids and prohibits injustice for Himself