As for his words—peace and blessings be upon him—“its good and its evil,” good refers to whatever benefits a person and suits him: sound, beneficial knowledge; plentiful and lawful wealth; good health; family, children, and the like. Evil is the opposite: ignorance, poverty, illness, losing one’s family or children, and similar misfortunes.

All of this, both good and evil, comes from Allah. Exalted is He; He ordains good for a wise purpose and He ordains evil for a wise purpose, as He says: “We test you with evil and with good as a trial, and to Us you will be returned” (21:35).

Thus, when Allah—in His wisdom—knows that decreeing a certain measure of evil will lead to great benefits, He decrees it, just as He says: “Corruption has appeared on land and sea because of what people’s hands have earned, so He may let them taste part of what they have done, that they might return” (30:41).

Someone might ask: How do we reconcile the Prophet’s statement “…and that you believe in the Divine Decree, its good and its evil” with his other saying, “Evil is not attributed to You”? The latter negates that evil is ascribed to Allah.

The answer is that unadulterated, absolute evil can never proceed from Allah’s action. Pure evil—containing no good whatsoever, neither in the present nor in the outcome—cannot exist in Allah’s deeds at all. This is one aspect, for even the evil that Allah decrees as evil must