of affairs, but rather place his trust in Allah and seek his Lord’s help.

Allah also declares that whatever boon reaches a servant is from Allah, whereas whatever misfortune befalls him is from his own self. By this He teaches His servants that every good, every righteous deed, and every beloved favor comes purely through His grace and generosity. Though such blessings may flow by way of means undertaken by the servants, it is He who bestowed those means and facilitated them. As for the evils—namely, the calamities that strike a person—their causes originate in the servant himself: his negligence of his Lord’s rights and his trespass of His bounds. While Allah is indeed the One who decrees these afflictions, He only brings them upon the servant because of what the servant’s own hands have earned. Examples of this are too many to enumerate.