The same applies in the transmitted wording (1). This is the clearest and best-known of the grammarians’ positions (2).

The point is that, had these people understood the Quran, they would have known that you commanded them only to do good and forbade them only from doing evil, and that the calamity which befell them was not caused by you, but by their own sins.

Allah Most High then said:

“Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever evil befalls you is from yourself.”

[Surah al-Nisā 79]

Ibn Abbās said:

“And I (3) decreed it upon you.”

It has also been said that, in a reading with Allah (4), it is: “And I decreed it upon you.”

This is like His words:

“Whatever calamity befalls you is because of what your own hands have earned, and He pardons much.”

[Surah al-Shūrā 30]

And His words:

“Why is it that when a calamity befell you—though you had inflicted twice as much—you said, ‘How did this happen?’ Say, ‘It is from yourselves.’”

[Surah Āl Imrān 165]

And His words:

“If an evil befalls them because of what their hands have sent ahead, then man is truly ungrateful.”

[Surah al-Shūrā 48]

As for Kardam’s transmission from Yaqūb—“It is from yourself”—its meaning contradicts the mass-transmitted reading and therefore cannot be relied upon.

The meaning of this verse is expressed in the authentic divine hadith:

“My servants, these are only your deeds. I record them for you and then recompense you for them in full. Whoever finds good should praise Allah, and whoever finds otherwise should blame no one but himself.” (5)

The meaning of this verse encompasses everyone who attributes a calamity that has befallen him to what