in His attributes. Thus, whenever He takes a handful, it is by His knowledge, justice, and wisdom. The Almighty grasped with His right hand those whom He knew would obey when commanded, and He grasped with the other hand those whom, in His prior knowledge, He knew would disobey when commanded. It is inconceivable, given Allah’s perfect justice, that He would take in His right hand someone who truly deserved to be in the other handful, or vice-versa. How could that be when Allah says: “Shall We then treat the Muslims like the criminals? What is wrong with you—how do you judge?” (Q 68:35-36).

Moreover, neither of the two handfuls entails any compulsion upon their members to be people of Paradise or of Hell. It is simply a divine judgment concerning what will issue from them: faith that necessitates Paradise, or disbelief that leads to Hell—may Allah protect us from it. Both faith and disbelief are voluntary; Allah does not compel any of His creatures to choose either one: “So whoever wills—let him believe, and whoever wills—let him disbelieve” (Q 18:29). This is something evident and known by necessity. Were it otherwise, reward and punishment would be pointless, and Allah is far exalted above such futility.

It is truly regrettable that we hear many people—even some preachers—openly claim that the human being is coerced and has no will of his own. In doing so they oblige themselves to say that Allah may wrong people, even though He has explicitly stated that He does not wrong them the weight of an atom, and even though He has proclaimed that, while able to commit injustice, He has forbidden it to Himself, as in the famous qudsi hadith: “O My servants, I have forbidden injustice to Myself….” Yet when faced with this reality, they hasten to invoke His words, “He is not questioned about what He does” (Q 21:23), insisting thereby that Allah might wrong people but is simply not to be questioned about it!