And He said:

“So whoever wills may take a path to his Lord.”

[Surah al-Muzzammil: 19]

[And He said] (1):

“Yet you cannot will unless Allah wills. Indeed, Allah is ever All-Knowing, All-Wise.”

[Surah al-Insān: 30]

And He said:

“So whoever wills may be mindful of it. Yet they will not be mindful unless Allah wills. He is worthy of being feared and worthy of granting forgiveness.”

[Surah al-Muddaththir: 55–56]

He has commanded us to say in prayer:

“Guide us to the straight path—the path of those You have favored, not those who have incurred wrath, nor those who have gone astray.”

[Surah al-Fātiha: 6–7]

Those whom Allah has favored are (2) the ones mentioned in His statement, Most High:

“They will be with those whom Allah has favored: the prophets, the steadfast affirmers of truth, the martyrs, and the righteous. What excellent companions they are!”

[Surah al-Nisāʾ: 69]

Only believers are included in favor in its unqualified sense. This indicates [that] the obedience (3) performed by the believers is something with which He favored them. Had His favor toward them been the same as His favor toward the disbelievers, everyone would have been among those favored—the people of the straight path.

His statement, Most High:

“Not those who have incurred wrath”

[Surah al-Fātiha: 7]

is adjectival, not an exception (4), because the word ghayr is in the genitive case, just as the Arabs say: “I certainly pass by the truthful man, not by