are an acknowledgment that he is a sinner who has wronged himself. In this way, the servant becomes grateful to his Lord and seeks forgiveness for his sin, thereby deserving further goodness and forgiveness of evil from the Ever-Appreciative, the All-Forgiving, who rewards even a little good work and forgives many lapses.

Here people fall into three categories regarding how they attribute good and evil deeds—acts of obedience and disobedience—to their Lord and to themselves. The worst are those who, when they do wrong, attribute it to divine decree, excusing themselves on the grounds that it had already been decreed and that they cannot escape the decree. Thus they invoke an argument against their Lord to justify wronging themselves. Yet when they do good, they attribute it to themselves, forgetting Allah’s favor in easing their way to goodness.

This is not the doctrine of any particular group among mankind. Rather, it is the condition of the worst of the ignorant wrongdoers, who neither observe the bounds of command and prohibition nor recognize the reality of divine determination and decree. As Shaykh Abū al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzī said of them:

“When you obey, you are a Qadarī; when you sin, you are a Jabrī. Whichever doctrine suits your desires, you adopt it.”

The best category—the one prescribed by the revealed Law, embodying the truth it has brought—is that of a person who, when he does good, thanks Allah for His favor and praises Him for having blessed him by making him one who does good rather than one who does evil.

For he is inherently poor and dependent upon his Lord in his very being, his attributes, and every movement and moment of stillness. He has neither power nor strength except through Him. Had Allah not guided him, he would not have been guided, as the people of Paradise say:

“All praise is for Allah, who has guided us to this. We would never have been guided had Allah not guided us. The messengers of our Lord certainly came with the truth.”

And when