the decree of your Lord has become binding will never believe—even if every sign were to come to them” (Yunus 96-97); the verses that affirm guidance, therefore, apply to those for whom the decree has not become binding(1).

Allah’s word prescribing punishment and banishment is incurred only by people who wallow in the mire of blind imitation, are submerged in the ocean of heedlessness, and refuse to respond to the summons of Allah’s cosmic and scriptural signs: “So when they deviated, Allah caused their hearts to deviate” (As-Saff 5); “Whereas those who are guided, He increases them in guidance” (Muhammad 17). This is the incontrovertible truth.

Another example: in some verses the Qur’an states that He is the Most High, above His servants and over His Throne; in others that He is with His servants wherever they may be, with the patient, the truthful, the virtuous, and the like. His exaltedness, exalted be He, is an established attribute and intrinsic to His essence.

His nearness and companionship to His servants are likewise affirmed, for He is closer to every person than his jugular vein. He is on His Throne, high above His creation, yet He is with them in all their circumstances. There is no contradiction between the two, for “nothing is like unto Him” in any of His attributes; any imagined conflict exists only in the case of created beings.

When His companionship is restricted to the doers of good and similar groups, it is a more specific companionship than the general one. It encompasses His love, His granting them success, His guardianship, and His aid in all their affairs. Wherever the term occurs in a context of praise and commendation, it is this special meaning that is intended; wherever it occurs in a context of warning, encouragement, or threat, it refers to the former, general sense.

Another case: many verses forbid believers to take the unbelievers as allies, to feel affection for them, or to attach themselves to them, while other verses command benevolence toward those of them who have rights over a person—such as parents, neighbors, and the like—and to keep their company honorably.

These general verses on both sides are made perfectly clear by His words: “Allah does not forbid you concerning those who have not fought you over religion and have not driven you from your homes, from treating them kindly and acting justly toward them; surely Allah loves those who act justly. He only forbids you concerning those who fought you over religion, drove you from your homes, and helped in driving you out, that you take them as allies; whoever takes them as allies—it is they who are the wrongdoers” (Al-Mumtahanah 8-9).

Thus, the prohibition concerns taking them as patrons and cultivating affectionate loyalty.