and a lack of wisdom; the shares of inheritance would have become chaotic, and the resulting harm—known only to Allah—would have been immense. Instead, He Himself assumed responsibility for the matter, allotting the estate with the wisest, most suitable, and most beneficial distribution.

Hence, whoever disparages any of His rulings, or says, “Had it been such-and-such,” is in reality casting aspersions on Allah’s knowledge and wisdom.

For this reason Allah mentions knowledge and wisdom after setting out His laws, just as He mentions them in verses of threat, in order to show His servants that legislation and recompense are bound to His wisdom and never outside His knowledge.

He also concludes supplications with the Names that befit the request. This is what is meant by calling upon Him through the Most Beautiful Names: “To Allah belong the Most Beautiful Names, so call upon Him by them” (al-Aʿrāf 7:180)—that is, devote yourselves to Allah by invoking Him with those Names, and beseech Him with every Name that matches your need.

Consider His words in Sūrah al-Ḥajj: “He will surely admit them to an entrance they will be pleased with, and indeed Allah is All-Knowing, Forbearing” (al-Ḥajj 22:59). The successive verses that follow, each of them ends with two noble Names.

The first verse ends with “All-Knowing, Forbearing.” This points to His knowledge of their fine intentions, their magnificent deeds, and their lofty stations; He therefore rewards them with tremendous grace and overlooks their misdeeds with forbearance, as though they had never committed them.

He seals the second verse with “All-Pardoning, Most Forgiving.” Although He has permitted retaliation in kind, He has urged the higher station of excellence—pardoning and refraining from punishing the offender—and He is directing you to worship Him by embodying these two majestic attributes so that you may obtain His pardon and forgiveness.

The third verse ends with “All-Hearing, All-Seeing,” which implies that He hears every sound uttered by whatever dwells in night and day, and that He sees their movements at all times and in every circumstance.

He concludes the fourth verse with “the Most High, the Most Great”; for His absolute exaltedness, majesty, grandeur, and glory reduce all created beings to insignificance and invalidate everything worshipped besides Him, and by affirming