—who despairs of His mercy and loses hope in His relief has assumed the worst of Him.
—Whoever deems it conceivable that He might punish His devoted allies despite their righteousness and sincerity, putting them on the same footing as His enemies, has assumed the worst of Him.
—Whoever imagines that He would leave His creatures to wander aimlessly, with no command or prohibition, sending them no messengers and revealing to them no scriptures, but abandoning them like grazing cattle, has assumed the worst of Him.
—Whoever supposes that He will not gather His servants after death for recompense and retribution—in an abode where the doer of good is rewarded for his goodness and the evildoer for his evil; where He clarifies for His creation the reality of what they disputed; and where He displays to all peoples His own truthfulness and the truthfulness of His Messenger, proving that His enemies were the liars—has assumed the worst of Him.
—Whoever believes that He would squander a righteous deed done purely for His sake in obedience to His command, nullifying it without any fault on the servant’s part; or who thinks that He punishes a person for something in which that person had neither act nor choice nor power nor will—in fact punishing him for what Allah Himself wrought upon him—has assumed the worst of Him.
—Whoever thinks it possible that He might support His lying enemies with the very miracles by which He supports His prophets and messengers, causing such wonders to appear at their hands so that they mislead His servants; or who claims that everything is equally fitting for Him—even tormenting someone who spent his life obeying Him, consigning him to the lowest depths of Hell, while bestowing bliss upon one who spent his life in enmity toward Him, His messengers, and His religion, raising him to the loftiest heights—holding both outcomes to be equally good in His sight, and asserting that only a truthful report tells us that one is impossible and the other real, for otherwise the intellect would not judge one repugnant and the other good—such a person has indeed assumed the worst of Him.
—And whoever imagines that He has spoken about Himself, His attributes, and His actions in language whose outward sense is false, anthropomorphic, and likening Him to His creation; that He left the truth unspoken, mentioning it only through remote symbols and cryptic hints without stating it plainly, while continually speaking openly in terms of anthropomorphism, comparison, and falsehood; and that He intended His creation to