Divine Justice (ʿAdl)
Tawhid Prophethood Divine Justice Imamah The Day of Resurrection Ethics and Society
Free Will 23 Good and Evil 39 Human Responsibility 79
Quotations without a link appear in the ʿAllāmah’s separate discourses, which are not on this website; they can be read in the printed volumes and the Al-Mizan App.
Free Will
The divine will comes after and above the human will — they are in a vertical, and not a horizontal position to each other. Therefore, there is no competition or collision between the two wills.
When a man's action is attributed to God and His will, it does not cease to be the man's action; it is still caused by the said man's will. The will of God decrees that the action be done by the man emanating from the man's own free will and choice. Therefore, it would be a contradiction in terms to say that the action was no longer done by man's free will because it was related to the divine will.
Someone said: 'The slave together with all his belongings belongs to the master — the slave has no right in or authority over this property at all.' Another said: 'Now the slave is the absolute owner, and the master has lost all his rights.' The former was the opinion of al-Mujabbirah; the latter that of the Muʿtazilites.
Imām ʿAlī said: 'If it were so, then there would be no justification of reward or punishment, no sense of command, prohibition or admonition, no meaning of promise or threat. Nay, the good-doer would have been rather more deserving of blame than the evil-doer, and the evil-doer rather more worthy of grace than the good-doer.'
Man Imprisoned in Divine System
Man is irremovably imprisoned in the above-mentioned Divine system; and even this transgression and rebellion is governed by that very system — the system of free will and choice. Your existence is so programmed from the earliest days of your foetal life that you irresistibly proceed on the road God has opened for you — opened it by giving you freedom of will, not by compelling you to follow a certain path.
Free Will and the Divine Law of Condition
Happiness and distress, blessing and affliction, vis-à-vis this man who lives with a free will in the light of the Qur'anic teachings, are strongly connected to his own free will; because he is proceeding on a path which will lead him to happiness if followed properly, while deviation from it will put him in turmoil and distress. When their intention is polluted with insincerity and actions tainted with evil, God changes their condition by withholding His mercy from them.
Free Will and the Decree of God
If God were to force the polytheists to believe, it would mean that people were no longer at the crossroads of belief and disbelief and did not have the free will required for the realization of īmān. In that case, education, discipline, and the message of religions would be meaningless because people would no longer differ in levels and degrees of perfection. The net effect would be a total transformation of the reality of human beings from their current state of existence to another system in which there is no human being or anything close to it.
Satan as the Border of the Straight Path
The existence of Satan — as a force that pulls toward evil and disobedience — is part of the structure of the human world, which pursues human perfection through free will. If we think of the straight path as a road, Satan's position would mark the sides or shoulders of this road. Evidently, one cannot define the center of a road if it has no borders which surround it from the outside — if there are no sides, it is also meaningless to have a center.
The Limit of Satan's Authority
Satan denies of himself all authority except as much as calling and making false promises. Likewise, God states that he has no authority over anyone except those who follow him: 'Indeed as for My servants you do not have any authority over them, except the perverse who follow you.' There is no contradiction between saying that these ideas and imaginations are our own and saying that Satan inspires them to our mind, for Satan's involvement is not like the involvement of other people who give us information or command us.
Vertical Causality and Human Freedom
The role of the person and the role of Satan in the cognitive process have a ṭūlī relationship (vertical, longitudinal, causal), meaning that they belong to two planes of existence where one is a cause or means for the other. Hence, Satan's involvement in this process is compatible with the involvement of the person, and the resulting act can be rightly attributed to both. Satan's acts do not have an ʿarḍī relationship (horizontal, parallel) with our acts — if that were the case, any act could be attributed either to us or to him, but not to both.
The First Law: No Coercion in Religion
This is one of the verses in the Qurʾān that negate any coercion or compulsion from religion, showing that this was one of the first ordinances to be legislated in the earliest iterations of the divine law — the code of Noah — and that it still stands today without ever having been abrogated.
God Leads Astray Only Those Who First Stray
The term ighwāʾ is used in a similar fashion to iḍlāl, save for the fact that it cannot be attributed to God from the outset, although it is possible to attribute it to Him as a form of recompense, such as when a person disobeys Him and therefore becomes deserving of misguidance. In this situation, God deprives them of access to the means of guidance, leaving them to their own devices.
God's Knowledge Does Not Negate Human Freedom
God's knowledge that a human will perform a certain act out of his or her own free will and volition, or that he or she will suffer a certain consequence due to a voluntary action he or she has performed, necessitates the inevitability of the action through human choice, not the inevitability of a certain action regardless of whether the human being chooses to do it or not, or whether there is a human being or not, which would sever the causal connection between the human and their action.
Life as a Realm of Choice
Life serves as a trial and a realm of choices; these choices exist precisely because of the potential for blurring the lines between truth and falsehood, and between good and evil. This sets the stage for humans to find themselves at the crossroads of divergent paths, discerning good from evil through their respective indicators and outcomes, and then making a choice that leads to either happiness or misery.
Guidance Begins with God
There is a distinction between the two. Guidance begins with God, and subsequently, the servant is guided. On the other hand, misguidance begins with the servant's poor choices, and then God recompenses him with further misguidance.
The First Steps Belong to the Servant
The first steps toward guidance are entirely in the hands of the servant himself, as indicated by the verse, As for those who strive in Us, We shall surely guide them in Our ways. This suggests that divine guidance is within human reach and consists of good deeds; if one acts well, God will be with him and will not allow him to go astray.
God Never Initiates Misguidance
God never attributes misguidance to Himself except in cases preceded by the servant's own wrongdoing, immorality, disbelief, denial, and similar transgressions. Not providing guidance is equivalent to leading astray.
Preserved Nature as the Path to God
If an individual aligns with their inherent nature, preserves their innate disposition from corruption, does not compromise their potential for guidance by succumbing to whims or engaging in sinful acts, and, should they falter, mends the resulting flaws in their nature through remorse and repentance, then God Almighty will provide guidance.
The Fleeing Commander of the Faithful
The Commander of the Faithful moved from the vicinity of a crooked wall to another wall. He was asked, 'O Commander of the Faithful! Are you fleeing from God's decree?' He replied: 'I flee from God's decree to God's allotment.'
Divine Will and Human Choice
Just because the divine will is fixed upon a person laughing, for example, this does not negate the role of the human being's own choice in their laughter or mean that their free will has no influence. This is because the divine will is not fixed upon laughter in the abstract sense, without regard for particularities. On the contrary, the divine will is fixed upon laughter that takes place as a result of human choice, insofar as the human being wants to laugh. Therefore, cause is part and parcel of the divine will. It is not separate or apart from it, such that there could be any conflict or contradiction between the two.
The Willing That Is Willed by God
The divine rule of qadar runs through their actions just as it pervades any event in the universe. It is true that their remembrance—in case they remember—is a voluntary act that they would commit through their free will and without any coercion, but that itself is subject to God's will, who has ordained that they should act on their own volition. If the divine will is removed, that act would not take place.
The Will That Does Not Belong Solely to the Self
This verse serves to clarify and reject a potential illusion: the people's will—not their action—depends on God's will. God's will does not directly affect the people's actions, but it first affects their will. Hence, His will does not override or cancel the volition of a servant. This also means that the people are not independent actors and decision makers, to do whatever they wish whether God wills it or not. Their acts are voluntary since they can be legitimately attributed to their volition. However, their volition itself is not voluntary, meaning that they cannot choose to have free will or not.
Free Will Within Divine Ordainment
God's creation and proportioning of the human being do not contradict their volition. They still maintain the choice to follow the path of faith and obedience, toward the happiness for which they are created. God's taqdīr (measurement, ordainment, allotment) applies to human acts through their volition. His will has decreed and determined that each person would act in a certain way through their free will. Therefore, the action originates from the free choice of the human being, while it is also proportioned and determined by God. This means that the human being is free in their acts, and thus responsible for them, although they are also subject to God's qadar.
Good and Evil
On Disbelief as the Death of Humanity — Worse Than Physical Killing
Killing only terminates the life of this world, while infidelity terminates this life as well as the next one and destroys both worlds. Polytheism is the death of humanity and a corruption of nature, and it is the defence of its right that resurrects it and gives it a new lease of life.
On Satan's Imitation of the Signs of Truth
The believers must submit all their affairs to God; they should not decide themselves what was good for them and what was not; they should not prepare or select any path for themselves without the guidance of God and His Messenger. Satan furnishes some paths of untruth with the signposts of truth; in this way, he puts into religion what is not from religion. Thus, a believer is deceived into following that path without realizing his error.
On God's Actions Being Beneficial Without Being Subservient to Benefit
It is true that God bestows His bounty and grace as He wishes and upon whom He pleases. Still, it is not done at random or without reason. God, in His actions, cannot be governed by any aim and object, as we are; when He does a work — and whatever He does is good — or creates a thing — and whatever He creates is beautiful — His action is beneficial to His creatures. But He is not subservient to any benefit.
On Good Deeds Leading to Guidance and Evil Deeds to Misguidance — Without Exception
Good deeds cause guidance and evil deeds make one go astray. It is a universal rule to which there is no exception. Let a wrong disguise itself as right, or an evil masquerade as good, or a lie take the place of truth — all these disguises may fool the onlookers for a period, but ultimately all the protective coverings must come off, revealing the ugly reality underneath. It is the system created by God in His creatures, and: you shall not find any alteration in the system of Allāh ().
The Chastisement Beneath Comfort
In the eyes of the Qur'an, a man who forgets his Lord lives a straitened life — even though in our eyes he may be living most luxuriously. He remains inordinately engrossed in wealth, children, prestige and worldly power and domination. What he wanted was pure blessing free from every shade of distress. What he got was a pleasure surrounded by a thousand agonies.
The Double Spiral of Desire
Such dissatisfaction of man with what he gets spurs him to even farther goals, in the hope of a really blessed future. And the story is repeated again and again. He remains worried before getting his objective; he becomes distressed after getting it. A man having material outlook does not acquire the Divine attributes, and his characteristics do not reflect the light of sublime virtues.
Spirit Sustains the Body
The Qur'an teaches us that man is made of two things: a spirit that is eternal, and a body that is subject to changes and deterioration. Whatever constitutes the bliss of the spirit, for example, knowledge, is his real bliss. On the contrary, what brings about a comfort to the body but harms the spirit, is the real suffering of man; it is his chastisement and evil reward.
Desert of Beasts Disguised as Fortune
A man who is entangled in worldly pleasure and material comfort thinks, at least in the beginning, that what he has acquired of the trinkets of this world is a blessing and good fortune for him. But soon he realizes that he is wandering aimlessly in a desert full of dangerous beasts, poisonous snakes and tormenting scorpions. What he thought to be his good fortune turns into greatest misfortune.
Two Incompatible Visions of Happiness
This leads us to believe that the perception and thinking found in the people of God and the Qur'an are quite different from those of other people, although both groups are human beings. Man, surrounded by material things, needs some especial training to perceive the real happiness as happiness, and the real unhappiness as unhappiness.
Good Deeds Lift Knowledge Heavenward
To Him do ascend the good words; and the good deed lifts them up. The good deeds lift the man up and remove him away from this transient world and its base desires. The more the good deeds lift him up, the higher his good words do ascend, and purer becomes his spiritual knowledge, farther from the impurities of confusion, doubt and imagination. The same details are true, in reverse, for the evil deeds and bad words — evil deeds sink down the man into the yawning depths of ignorance, hypocrisy and infidelity.
Sin as Death, Forgiveness as Light
The Qur'an has counted belief and the hereafter as 'life'; and the effects of belief, the deeds of the people of the hereafter and their lively progress as 'light.' Thus, polytheism is death, and sins are utter darkness. An unbeliever has neither life nor light. A believer whose sins are forgiven, has the life and the light both; on the other hand, a believer who is encumbered with sins is alive but with diminished light; his light will become perfect when he is forgiven.
The Definitive Metaphysics of Good and Evil
All good comes from God, because every good thing is His creation and the creation is not separable from goodness; and He is the owner of all good—others receive goodness only when He gives it into their possession. No harm, evil or misfortune is attributable to God, because evil, per se, is not created, and He is the Creator. So, what is misfortune? When God withholds His mercy from people because of what their hands have done, it is called misfortune, calamity or evil.
Chastisement Emanates from the Human Side
This verse shows that the chastisement which covers some people emanates from their side, not from God's side. Likewise, all the things which invite punishment—going astray, polytheism, sins and errors—do not originate from God; they are done by the people themselves. If any of these things had originated from God, then the resulting punishment also would have been from God, because the effect is related to its cause.
The Relational Nature of Evil
The existence of anything — in and of itself, and regardless of its relation with other things — can only be good. Evil is only relational; what is created and brought into existence is always good. Evil comes into play only when we consider the relationship between one being and other beings, where it may contravene a fair order in the world or cause some deprivation for another being. That is what is meant when we say that evil is necessarily a relative or relational property.
The Necessity of Contraries
Even though the world of creation is enormously vast, all its parts are linked to one another and compose a consistent whole. A necessary implication of this, according to divine wisdom, is that the constituting parts of this world have a variety of harmonious and disharmonious relationships with one another. This means that if there were no evil properties such as corruption, weariness, privation, and imperfection, there would be no instance of good properties such as health, comfort, possession, and perfection.
The Seat of Satan's Operation
All these verses indicate that the sphere of Satan's activity is human cognition, and his means of operation are feelings and emotions — he entices the passions of the people and infuses false ideas and vain illusions into the human soul. Meanwhile, we find these ideas and imaginations — which we call 'the whispers and temptations of the Devil' — to be our own thoughts, without having any doubts about it. We do not sense anyone imparting them to us from outside, nor do we acquire them through an intellectual process; rather, we find them readily available to us.
The Illusion of Independence
Satan's deception is that he makes us perceive ourselves and other things in life to be independent entities, which prevents us from realizing the Truth and distracts us from real life. So we can say that Satan is the source of this sense of independence and being unmindful of God, which results in all kinds of false beliefs, illusions, polytheism, and wrongdoing. Meanwhile, since one feels himself to be independent, he imagines that this very impression has arisen from himself — showing how pervasive Satan's machination is.
The Divine Law: Blessings Follow the Readiness of the Heart
Divine punishment follows divine blessings. Divine blessings persist, and do not change into divine retribution, as long as the locus of these divine blessings — that is, the people themselves — do not change. Divine blessings issue forth to a people in accordance with their readiness to accept them. Only when people change their capacity and the qualification for the overflow of blessings and garb themselves with the capacity to receive divine torment do divine blessings change into divine retribution. This is a universal law with respect to the transformation of divine blessings into divine retribution.
Satan Adorns Deeds Then Abandons Those He Has Misled
When Satan 'makes deeds seem fair,' he instills the notion into people's hearts that their acts are good — nay, delightful. By whipping up their inner faculties (quwwā) and emotions surrounding that deed, he draws their hearts to it, whereby they no longer have any space to consider the repercussions of their acts. Then, when the two forces met, divine aid descended, and fear settled in their hearts, their vain aspirations of valour and victory morphed into terror, despair, and loss, overtaking their hearts.
The Straight Path Is the Universe's Own Path
If a person deviates and strays from this path, he challenges the cosmic order and the different parts of existence that make up the universe, encroaching on their affairs. In such a case, he should anticipate the bitterness of calamities and expect punishment and suffering to result.
Calamity Follows the Departure from Truth
The matter of divine punishment befalling those who reject the worship of God and arrogantly resist submitting to His Lordship is a matter of reality and certitude. One of the universal principles operating in the universe is the need of the weak to submit to the strong and the oppressed to the oppressor. What then can be said about God, the One, the Overpowering, to whom the destiny of all matters devolves?
God's Wrath Waits for the Final Refusal
Divine punishment will not befall the disbelievers in this world so long as there is still hope of them believing. However, once disbelief has taken root in their hearts and they are consumed by the contamination of idolatry, that is when the sentence of punishment becomes due against them.
Patience Grants the Earth to the Righteous
When you know what happened to Noah and his people, including the destruction of his people and his survival along with the believers who were with him, and how God granted them inheritance of the earth because of their patience, and how Noah was victorious over his enemies because of his patience, then you must likewise be patient and steadfast for the truth, because the best outcome is for the righteous.
Faithful Hearts Open Heaven's Gates
There is a complete correlation between people's actions and the cosmic events which afflict them. Righteous deeds result in the multiplication of blessings and the sending down of divine grace, while evil deeds invite successive calamities and disasters, bringing about anger, misery, and destruction.
Felicity Is Attaining the Good That Completes Existence
The felicity of any being is to attain the goodness which completes its existence and brings it delight. For human beings, who are composed of both a body and a soul, this means attaining goodness according to both their physical and spiritual powers, experiencing pleasure and satisfaction from it. Conversely, their misery arises from the loss or deprivation of this goodness.
Truth Remains; Falsehood Vanishes Like Foam
The truth is from God, Glorious is He, and the falsehood is not attributed to Him, even though it is by His permission. These existences each include a part of the truth, fixed, not vanishing, it will return to it by the nullification of what is false from it.
The Singular Root of Guidance
Guidance stems from the truth, and truth is singular, consistent throughout its elements and manifestations. In contrast, misguidance arises from following one's desires, and these desires are varied, differing from one another without unity or consistency in their aspects and truths.
Misguidance Is the Absence of Guidance
Misguidance gains its meaning in contrast to guidance; it's defined by the lack of the perfection inherent in guidance. Misguidance emerges from the absence of this perfection, making it a concept rooted in non-existence.
Evil Is Rare Beside the Overwhelming Good
God's wisdom that is rooted in His infinite power, knowledge and generosity necessitates that He would create what is the best in the most perfect system. Therefore, the evil that is found is rare and little compared to the good that is found, and that little evil comes to existence thanks to the great good and because of it.
Falsehood Has No Endurement
The verse commands the Prophet to proclaim the appearance of truth. It is deduced from this verse that falsehood has no endurement, as He says elsewhere: And the parable of an evil word is as an evil tree pulled up from the earth's surface; it has no stability.
The Boat: Damage as Mercy
There was a tyrannical king who ordered the seizure of the boats, so I wanted to make a hole in it to make it defective so that the tyrant would not covet it and would leave it to them.
God's Custom of Respite
It has been God's custom to grant respite to falsehood until it confronts the truth and comes to invalidate and destroy it. True beliefs are never eradicated even if those who bear them are sometimes few or weak.
God's Absolute Ownership Negates Injustice
God has absolute and all-encompassing ownership of all things in every aspect. Their very being depends on Him and they have no sovereignty or independence from Him. Thus, anything that He does to them—whether it is pleasant or unpleasant to them, beneficial or harmful—is by no means an act of injustice.
The Handiwork of Perfection
Such acts by God appear to be a way of destroying this world and obliterating the universe, but in reality they are a way of perfecting and ordering it, for they bring everything to its goal, and make everyone reach their end in the direction that they are pursuing, toward either happiness or wretchedness.
The Greatness of a Misdeed
An action becomes great through the greatness of its effects, so the gravity of a misdeed comes from the gravity of its punishment. Therefore, the greatest of misdeeds is to disobey God because of His own unparalleled greatness and magnificence.
Creation Entails Perfection
Nothing that exists is considered evil insofar as it exists and is a created entity. This is indicated by the verse: who perfected everything that He created. From these two verses we deduce: firstly, that creation (khulqah) entails perfection (ḥusn) and that every created thing is good insofar as it is a created thing; secondly, that all evil and badness is not something created insofar as it is evil or bad.
The Root of All Sins
In his answer, Iblīs hints that he feels that divine commands should only be obeyed if they seem right to him, not simply because they have been commanded or for their own sake. This is rooted in the fact that Iblīs did not accept God's overarching dominion or rule. This is the root of all sins and acts of disobedience; they arise when someone considers himself to be outside the realm of worshipping God and outside of His domain.
The Gradual Leading to Perdition (Istidrāj)
Istidrāj is when blessings are continually bestowed on people to destroy them, but they cannot see that, since they rejoice at what they perceive as good, rather than recognizing these gifts as destructive and evil. God gave them blessing after blessing, but whenever they received something new, they became preoccupied with it and forgot to be grateful. They became more and more heedless, further and further from remembering God.
Humanity Created in Travail
The fact that toil and trouble envelop and encompass all aspects of human life is no secret to any intelligent person. While one tends to aim for the purest, choicest and most perfect of worldly pleasures, what one ends up getting is always mixed with elements of struggle and suffering, which spoil and ruin everything. Not to mention the tragedies and natural disasters which catch the person off-guard. It follows that human creation is subject to a higher power. Their wishes and plans are restricted to certain limits that are placed on them. The One Who overrides their desires and enshrouds them in His destiny is the Almighty God.
Human Responsibility
People are divided into three categories: First, those who proceed to the upper heights — those who believe in the signs of God and are not arrogant to His worship. Second, those who fall down to the lower levels — those upon whom the wrath of God has descended. Third, those who have gone astray from the right path; they are lost, wandering hither and thither.
On the Heart as Locus of the Soul, Not Merely Emotion
The faculties of thought, understanding, love, hate, fear, and so forth, may be attributed to the heart, as hearing is attributed to the ears, sight to the eyes, and taste to the tongue. But the word 'earning' can only be attributed to man. As the verse uses the expression 'for what your hearts have earned,' it proves that the 'heart' here stands for the 'soul,' the 'spirit.'
On the Heart as the Seat of Accountability, Not the Limbs
These traits may be manifested through the actions of the body, which may be perceived by others and which prove the existence of those traits in the doer. Conversely, these traits may remain hidden if one does not do any action that could prove their existence in one's mind. The verse, in short, says that mental states — the characteristics and traits settled in the mind — are the basis of a man's actions, obedient as well as disobedient; and God will call man to account for them.
The Absurdity of God Atoning for Himself
Did God, by becoming one with man, take upon Himself that curse and those sufferings in real sense of the word? Or, was it all just a metaphor, only an allegory? If it was in real sense, our objection stands. And if it was only in a metaphorical sense, then the original 'problem' would remain unsolved; the birth of Christ would not solve the conflict between Divine Mercy and Divine Justice. Obviously, the said plan was based on the idea that God Himself should be the ransom for human beings.
Sin, Punishment, and the Reality of Law
When a man obeys the shariah prescribed for him by God, his psyche acquires some noble and praiseworthy inner traits; and if he disobeys the said shariah, he acquires unworthy, hideous and evil traits. It is these deeply ingrained traits and characteristics which prepare for him the rewards or punishments of the next life, respectively. That reward and punishment is represented by the Paradise and the Hell, respectively — and their respective reality is nearness to God or distance from Him. Thus the merit and demerit of deeds are based on things which actually exist and have a system. Unlike our social laws they are not based on any imaginary thing emanating from subjective consideration.
Intercession Is Not Atonement
Intercession is but a sort of prayer and request by the intercessor that the master — in this case, the Lord — should manage the affairs of His creature with mercy. The intercessor accepts the Master's right to punish the sinner, but asks the Master to exercise His power of forgiveness. But atonement is something else; it is a deal, a bargain, which transfers the Master's authority from the sinner to the ransom given in his place, and removes the sinner from the Master's power as soon as the Master accepts the ransom in his place.
Divine Dignity Is Not Racial
The verse indicates that the divinely bestowed dignity is not so easily obtainable; it is not a common-place thing which could be attained by just verbal expression of belonging, or which may be used for racial or national supremacy by crafty and wily persons. The important condition for attainment of Divine Dignity is piety and fulfilment of the covenant made with God. When these conditions are fulfilled the said dignity is achieved. That dignity means God's love, friendship and guardianship, which are not given except to His pious servants.
The Ruins Speak, the Heedless Pass
The believers have been told to travel in the earth, in order that they could learn lessons from archeological remains of ancient people and bygone generations. They should ponder about those pharaohs and nimrods, those kings and emperors — where did all of them go to? Their towering palaces, their accumulated treasures, their gilded thrones and their fully-equipped armies — nothing could avail them in the least; now they are just a few names to serve as examples and lesson for those who meditate, and as tourist attraction for the carefree and oblivious persons.
Happiness Mistaken for Its Opposite
Whoever does not heed the divine call and thus becomes liable to infelicity … whatever acts bring his potential to accomplishment, add more to his infelicity and unhappiness, even if he considers himself pleased with his current condition and feels happy with himself. This apparent happiness is just a divine plan to let him sink deeper into error. Ultimately he will find his infelicity and unhappiness in the very thing which, he thought, was the source of his felicity and happiness; his failure will spring from what he mistook for his achievement.
God's Test Differs from Ours
There is a difference between our test and the divine one. We generally do not know the hidden reality of the things; therefore when we conduct an examination, our real aim is to discern its hitherto unknown reality. But it is impossible for God not to know, and with Him are the keys of the unseen. Therefore, when He examines us, His aim is to train us by calling us to good result and felicity. He, by such test and trial, demonstrates to one and all the reality of the person so examined, in order that it may be known to all what should be his destination, whether he should be sent to the place of good reward or to the abode of chastisement.
The Unbeliever Driven Toward His Limit
The unbeliever is driven to that goal by the health and strength, bounty and comfort that he is provided with — God in this way draws him nearer to his destruction in degrees and unfolds His plan against him — enabling him to go to the furthest possible limit of transgression and disobedience. The believer on the other hand is continuously scraped through test and trial until his belief and faith is cleansed from all rust and pollution, and he becomes absolutely pure for God; while the unbeliever's polytheistic tendencies are purged of every shade of belief and he falls down where other friends of false deities and leaders of infidelity have gone.
Deeds Return Through Progeny
Whatever a man does to another person or to that person's progeny, in reality affects and befalls the main body and reaches through it to all sides including the doer's. When a man does good to someone else, he in reality asks God to do exactly the same good to himself — an invocation that is bound to be answered and cannot be rejected. Also when he does an evil or injustice to someone, he in effect asks for it for himself — whatever condition affects any side of this unit, in reality affects and befalls the main body and reaches through it to all sides.
The Trickery Hidden in Planned Repentance
Such a repentance is totally devoid of the reality of repentance. Repentance is renouncement of sins, and there is no renouncement in the situation mentioned by the objector. He had planned to repent before the sin, and with the sin, and after the sin; and how can one feel remorse before the action? The fact is that, in such cases, the whole activity — the sin and the so-called repentance — taken together is one action with one intention; and that is trickery and deception, with which he tries to deceive the Lord of the worlds. But evil plan does not beset any except its authors.
Repentance Cannot Waive the Rights of the Wronged
A field where repentance is ineffective and inadmissible, is violation of other people's rights; because repentance is beneficial concerning God's rights only. If a sin has violated other people's rights, mere repentance will do no good at all; the victims' pleasure must be obtained if the sinner wants to erase that sin. God has given some rights to people in their properties, honor and lives. He cannot grant remission if someone transgresses any of these rights — otherwise it would be tantamount to depriving the victims of their due rights without any mistake on their part. Far be it from Him to do injustice when He has forbidden us to do it.
The Altered Face: A Metaphysics of Misguidance
Alteration of face means here changing a man's face with which he goes forward to obtain his life's aims, to achieve the expected bliss and happiness. Consequently, the more he advances on his way, the more is he retarded backwards — because now he is facing his posterior. The more he goes 'ahead' to get what he thinks is good for his worldly life or religion, the more he accumulates evil and mischief. The more he progresses, the more is he retrogressed. Such a man can never succeed in his endeavors.
Ignorance Without Enmity: A Valid Plea Before God
A man is oblivious of the established truth of the religion and its tenets, and his thoughts have not led him to it, but at the same time he has no enmity towards truth, is not averse to it at all; if he knew the reality he would have readily accepted it; but the truth has remained hidden from him because of some factors—and therefore he does not know it. God makes an exception of the weak persons and accepts their plea of 'weakness', defining it as the inability to avert the danger from themselves.
The Empty-Handed Soul
A 'weak' person is empty-handed. There is nothing for or against him in his account, because he has not earned anything. His judgement is in the hands of his Lord. Man, whether he is good, evil or just empty-handed, can never be free from the need of God's pardon and forgiveness; it is this divine pardoning which erases the traces of evil and infelicity.
Sin as a Crime Against One's Own Self
Whoever commits a crime, he does so against his own soul, and it is not written in someone else's account; it is he who has done it, not the other man, even if he accuses that man of it. God is Knowing—He knows that the sin was done by this sinner, and not by that accused man; and He is Wise—He does not hold responsible for a sin except the actual sinner, and does not put the burden of a crime except on the actual criminal.
Denial of Faith as Willful Neglect of Known Truth
al-Kufr (denial, covering) of Imān demands that there should be in the beginning a firm imān — the correct and true beliefs, which give rise to the good deeds. In this light, denial of faith means not acting on what one knows to be right and truth. For example, if one neglects the pillars of religion like prayer, zakāt, fast and hajj although he knows that they are the pillars of religion — or keeps friendship with the polytheists, mingling with them and taking part in their activities, although knowing that only Islam is the truth.
When the Heart's Disease Becomes Its Death
The heart's disease, like that of the body, sometimes goes on increasing until it becomes deep-rooted and chronic and ends in perdition; it happens when harmful things are taken or done — which in this case is disobedience of God. Then God comments in a general way: 'Then evil was the end of those who did evil, because they rejected the signs of Allah and used to mock them.'
Divine Patterns in History: Transgression as Response to Truth
Their increase in transgression and disbelief has been ascribed to the Qur'an inasmuch as no sooner had their unjust and envious souls seen the revelation of the Qur'an and realized the true knowledge and manifest Call contained in it, than they rose up in transgression and disbelief. Causing someone to go astray is considered blameworthy if it is done initially, without any cause. But if it is done as a retribution of moral depravity or sins committed by the one gone astray, then there is nothing wrong in such causing to go astray.
Human Moral Ecology — Belief Affects the Created Order
The verse proves that the belief and good deeds of the human species have an effect on the good of the creative system inasmuch as it has a connection with this species. So if this species behaved properly the whole system of the world would remain good, because it would fulfil what is necessary for a happy life of man — by repelling the misfortune and abundance of blessings.
Pride and Spiritual Blindness in Nations
Look at these Jews who thought that they had a special prestige because they were Jews; yet this delusion did not do them any good, rather it made them blind and deaf and led them to perils of destruction and tribulation when they called the Prophets of God liars and murdered them. They recognized themselves, knew that they were servants of God and had no prestige or status except through piety — so they saw the truth and listened to divine admonition delivered by the tongues of the Prophets.
Religion as a Weighty Burden
God's religion and His commands are a heavy burden which man cannot easily pick up or bear on his shoulders without depending on a firm foundation and surface; he cannot keep the religion up merely by his desire. God has pointed to this heavy burden in relation to the noble Qur'an: 'Surely We will send down to you a weighty word'; 'Had We sent down this Qur'an on a mountain, you would certainly have seen it falling down, splitting asunder because of the fear of Allah.'
God's Justice Requires Messengers
It is not God's custom to destroy the people of towns and mete out His wrath as long as they are unaware of what He wants from them and what He shall do if they do not comply — that would be an injustice far from Him. The expression 'your Lord would not' shows a consistent custom of God, for all of God's actions are according to an ongoing custom and a straight path, as He says: 'Surely my Lord is on the straight path.'
When Belief No Longer Avails
This verse applies to those who did not believe out of willingness before that day, and those who believed in God but had no regard for His laws — who freely indulged in sins and did not earn any righteous deeds in their state of belief. Once these groups behold God's punishment, if they desperately resort to īmān to avert the punishment, it will not profit them. What shall profit a person is voluntary belief that is not ruined by sin or contaminated by evil.
Religious Obligation as Existential Transformation
The wisdom in religious obligation is that it bears with itself a gradual transformation for humans toward their ultimate perfection, according to their individual traits and personalities. By acting upon these injunctions, they advance step-by-step toward an end that is better and more lasting for them; in case they neglect these instructions, they will fail to achieve that end. In this sense, humankind is just like any other species: they have a path which leads them to their perfection as long as the means and requirements are there, but if the conditions of their growth are not met, they will not reach their intended goal.
The Garment of Godwariness
The verse makes a transition from physical garments to a spiritual garment — the former cover the body parts that would make one ashamed if revealed, and similarly the latter covers inner defects such as polytheism and all other sins. This spiritual garment is Godwariness, which is God's advice and command to us. The psychological pain due to a disclosure of inner defects is more intense, bitter, and lasting than that of physical defects, because then one has to face God and be accountable to Him.
Falsehood Chosen as Truth
They choose falsehood supposing that it is the truth; they do evil assuming that it is good; and they pursue wretchedness thinking that it leads to happiness. This means that the innate human cognition — always oriented toward true beliefs and good deeds — is preserved without any change, but the person has mismatched it in its practical applications. It is impossible that one would choose and follow falsehood through falsehood — any being that works in the universe only inclines toward a goal which is in harmony with its essence and beneficial for it.
No Human Being Can Claim Ignorance of God
And this call, the call to truth, is to the Word of truth, the religion of tawḥīd, which brings life to those who respond to the call. Thus it is upon him to respond to the caller to God. He has no excuse to spurn it on the grounds that he doesn't know whether or not he is being called to the truth, or whether some of it is true and some of it isn't, or because he is perplexed by the varying approaches (madhāhib). This is because God is the clear truth, and nothing hides that. Anything that hides God is a presumption, whereas God is the closest thing to a human being.
Hypocrisy Is Exposed Because God Knows the Heart's Interior
Therefore, when the human being is summoned to the call to truth, which enlivens him from the truth, it behooves him to answer this call with his heart just as he answers it with his tongue. He should not hide in his heart that which disagrees with what he utters with his tongue. That is hypocrisy, whereas God knows best what is in his heart. When He resurrects him, He shall inform him of the truth of his deeds and tell him of what crossed his heart.
Trial Alone Reveals the Truly Faithful
This world is an abode of trial and tribulation. While human souls are ultimately destined for good or ill and felicity or misery, they come into this world as a blank slate. They can only attain nearness to God through the struggle and sacrifice they undertake for the sake of their belief in God and His signs. Pure faith only becomes manifest through the trials that the believer faces in the arena of action. In this way, God distinguishes the virtuous from the vicious, and the truly faithful from those who merely espouse faith with their tongues.
Forgetting God Means Forgetting One's Own Soul
The hypocrites are the ones who bid others to evil and discourage others from good deeds in the way of God. In other words, they have forgotten God because they have turned aside from His remembrance because they are transgressors who have forsaken the path of divine servanthood. As a result, God has forgotten them and will not grant them the rewards He bestows upon His servants who are mindful of the station of their Lord.
Fear of Revelation as the Mirror of Concealed Faithlessness
The hypocrites were afraid that the Prophet would recite a discourse about them to the people in the form of a chapter of the Qurʾān that laid bare the contents of their hearts and exposed their secrets, their infidelity, and their evil intentions for all to see. This, in reality, is the revelation that they feared would be sent down.
Doubt as a Collapsing Foundation, Certainty as Bedrock
From the context of the verse, it appears that both Is he who founds his building on Godwariness and he who founds his building on the brink of a collapsing bank are two metaphors for the lives of the faithful and the hypocrites, namely their respective religions and ways of living their lives. So the religion of the believer is being wary of God and seeking His pleasure based on his certainty about Him, while the religion of the hypocrite is based on doubt and hesitation. It is for this reason that God follows this with the beginning of the next verse, The building they have built — that is, the hypocrites — will never cease to be a disquiet — a source of doubt — in their hearts — which will never attain certainty — lest their hearts are cut into pieces.
No Deed Hidden from the Witnesses of God
Whatever good or evil you do, its true nature is fully visible to God, who is the Knower of the sensible and the unseen, then to His Messenger and the faithful — who are the witnesses to deeds — will see them too, then on the Day of Judgement you will be returned to God, who is the Knower of the sensible and the unseen, and He will show you the reality of your deeds. So there is a great difference between someone who does a deed in private where none can see him and between someone who does the same act publicly in full sight of onlookers and knowing that this is the case.
Proof Must Precede All Divine Punishment
God does not lead any people astray after He has guided them until He has made clear to them what they should beware of. This is because it embodies an essential truth of religion that is explicitly affirmed by both the Qurʾān and the Prophetic sunnah, namely that there can be no punishment without incontrovertible proof first being offered. No harshness of any kind should be directed towards someone before the truth has been explained to them. One who is ignorant but searching for the truth should never be turned away, nor should one who is unaware of the truth be punished for it.
God Does Not Destroy a People Who Reform
It is not part of God's divine precedent to destroy towns where its inhabitants were people who sought to bring about good and reform. Such an act would be an injustice, and your Lord does not wrong anyone. Therefore, when God says 'unjustly', it serves as a clarifying qualification (qayd tawḍīḥī), not a restrictive one (qayd iḥtirāzī), meaning that it illustrates that God's divine practice is not to destroy towns that seek good because that would be an injustice.
The Human Being Is Not Merely a Body
A human being is not just this physical body and material form, but rather, a being composed of a soul and a body. The main aspect to which all matters refer is the soul. It is the soul that feels and desires, to which commands and prohibitions are directed, and upon which reward and punishment, comfort and pain, happiness and misery are based.
God Does Not Change a People's Blessings Without Cause
God has decreed a certain kind of correlation between the blessings bestowed by Him upon the human being and the spiritual states of the human being, which are in line with his innate upright nature (fiṭra). If a people were to follow this upright nature, believe in God, and do good deeds, He would follow this by pouring out the blessings of this world and the Hereafter upon them.
The Bird of Omen Clings to the Neck
That which brings about every person's ultimate fate — happiness or misery — is with him, not separating from him by a decree from God. God is the One Who has made it cling to him. Further, this cause of one's fate which is inseparable from the person is the person's actions.
Actions Never Leave Their Doer
Given that one's deeds — whether good or bad — cling to their doer without separating from him, and are recorded against him until he sees them at the time of reckoning, then it follows that whoever goes aright, goes aright for himself; its benefit will accrue to himself and no one else.
The Eschatological Consequence That Does Not Spread
As for the eschatological consequences of actions, they do not spread beyond the doer whatsoever. As for consequences in this world, actions do not affect anyone apart from the doer unless God wishes otherwise. However the consequences, whether good or bad, always reach the doer without exception.
God Tests Through Beauty and Then Takes It Away
God decreed that their perfection and eternal happiness would be in true belief and good deeds, so the divine providence brilliantly resorted to placing them where they have to believe and act, and sending them to a testing place for purification and cleansing, making them dwell on the earth until an appointed time and creating attachments and ties between them and life's pleasures on earth; [ties] such as money, children, and prestige, things [which have been] made dear to their hearts.
The Veil Over Stubborn Hearts
Making his heart unmindful means imposing unmindfulness on it, making it forget the remembrance of God as a punishment, because they had stubbornly opposed the truth, so God made them go astray by making them unmindful to remembrance of Him.
The Righteousness of a Father as Legacy
There is proof in the verse that a person's righteousness may cause his children to inherit a nice legacy and might leave them in happiness and goodness. God provides a legacy in a righteous servant's family and property after his death even if his family are evil people.
The Greatest Loss Is Not Knowing You Are Lost
If he gets the way wrong, hits upon something other than the truth and has faith in it, whenever he is dropped a hint of truth, his soul will cast a veil over him and make the arrogance and ignorant zeal he is wrapped up in look good to him. He is then the greatest loser with regard to his deeds; his labor is most often thwarted because it is loss for the abatement of which there is no hope.
Forgetting God Begets a Straitened Life
Nothing will remain for whoever forgets his Lord and stops remembering Him apart from clinging to the world and making it his only pursuit. He will always have straitness of heart and be exasperated by what he finds, his heart attached to what is beyond it along with the worry, grief, sorrow, distress, anxiety and fear which assails him upon the descent of calamities.
Life as Introductory Trial
The life of every soul is a period of test and trial, and a trial is obviously an introductory and preparatory matter — every trial must be followed by a stage at which the result is determined.
Blindness of the Inner Heart
For surely it is not the eyes that are blind, but blind are the hearts which are in the breasts. If one's heart loses its sight, then there is no substitute to make up for its loss.
God Questions, None Questions Him
He is not to be questioned about what He does, but they shall be questioned. This is because He is the absolute Sovereign, and the absolute Sovereign is not answerable to anyone beneath Him.
The Deeds of the Disbelievers as a Mirage
The disbelievers deviate from the remembrance of their Lord and righteous deeds that lead them to His light, which is the key to their felicity. They completely engage themselves in empty actions that have no reality, like a mirage. Thus they pass their life, exhausting their assets and effort in this way, until the time of their death — at that point they come to witness the next abode, but they will not find any of the good and return that they were anticipating.
Good Deeds Are Merely Preliminary
A good deed to its reward is like the means to the end, regardless of what the good deed is. Whereas the reward is the purpose, the deed is a preliminary that is intended for that objective. The end goal is always superior to its preliminary.
No Nation Was Destroyed Without Warning
We did not destroy any town but it had warners to remind them, and We have not been unjust. This expression indicates that injustice does not befit God's position and status. In other words: We are not such that We would ever do injustice; it is never expected of Us to be unjust to them.
Mischief Brings Its Own Undoing
If they still continue their mischief because it is rooted in their hearts, then God will destroy them with an exterminating punishment, and will clear the earth from the defilement of their mischief.
Trial Is a Divine Habit
Such trials and persecution are a divine habit (sunna ilāhiyya) that cannot be avoided; they happen to people today just as they happened to peoples past. Some of these went aright and others perished; God did not wrong them, rather they used to wrong themselves.
Injustice and Ignorance as Capacity
While being unjust and ignorance are generally considered negative traits, they are what allow the human being to bear this trust, for a being which can be described as unjust can also be described as just, and a being which can be described as ignorant can also be described as learned. Just as mountains can neither be called unjust nor ignorant, they can also neither be called just nor learned.
Ascending from Depths to Heights
It is because the human being is innately void of justice and knowledge but capable of accepting something that will develop these traits in himself that he can ascend from the depths of injustice and ignorance to the heights of justice and knowledge.
Wealth and Children Do Not Bring Nearness
Neither your wealth nor your children are what will bring you near Us. A person is spared punishment because they are near to God, not because they have wealth or children. Furthermore, wealth and children do not bring a person nearer to God such that they might free their owner or progenitor from Hell.
The Misjudgment That Ruins
That is your misjudgment that you entertained about your Lord and which ruined you. In other words, the supposition that you entertained about your Lord—that He did not know most of what you did—has destroyed you, as it made your sinning seem trivial to you, which led you to ingratitude towards God, and, as a result, you became losers.
The Open Breast and the Guiding Light
To open someone's breast (sharḥ al-ṣadr) means to expand it so that it can encompass the words it receives. If someone's breast is opened to Islam, which means to submit to the will of God, which is nothing but the truth, then this means that the person is such that they accept the truth when it is presented to them and do not reject it. However, it does not signify that they accept something without understanding or discernment. On the contrary, it means they accept it because they see that it is the truth and recognise it as good guidance.
Primary Nature Versus Acquired Second Nature
Their aversion to the truth means aversion with respect to their secondary nature (al-ṭabʿ al-thānī) which they acquire as a result of sinning and disobedience. It is not with respect to their primary nature which is the innate fiṭrah upon which all people were created. After all, if they were averse to the Truth on account of this primary nature, then they could not be held morally accountable for rejecting it.
The Human Being Is Innately Inclined Toward Truth
The human being, by his basic nature, is innately inclined towards the Truth and recognizing it when it is put in front of him. However, if it is put in front of him but he turns away because of his desires and keeps on this path, then God seals his heart, blinds his sight, and assigns him a companion devil. When this happens, he no longer sees the truth even if it stares him in the face.
Knowledge Without Action Leads Astray
Knowledge is not the same thing as guidance, nor is error the same thing as ignorance. Rather, guidance requires a person to both have knowledge and to act according to that knowledge. If he does this, then this leads to him being guided. But if there is someone with knowledge who does not act upon it because he is following his desires, then this does not lead to him being guided, rather it leads him astray, even with knowledge.
The Great Error of Those Who Live for This World Alone
They have erred in their way of life when finding the right way to live is the most important thing imaginable to the human being. Because they imagine that this fleeting life of theirs is all they have, they spend it immersed in worldly pleasures, when they should be using this life to prepare for their eternal life in the Hereafter. But they have strayed from the path of good sense and so fallen into the path of error.
Truth Is Connected to God Alone
By qualifying the truth (al-ḥaqq) with from their Lord (min rabbihim), God intimates that only the truth is connected to Him and that falsehood has no relation to Him whatsoever. This verse shows that the ultimate criterion for the happiness or misery of the human being is whether they follow truth or falsehood, as only the truth is connected to God, not falsehood.
The Sealed Heart and Its Symptom
From this we understand that following desires is a symptom of having your heart sealed by God; a heart which has not been sealed remains in its original state of pure nature (fiṭrah) which is not prevented from understanding religious teachings or divine truths.
The Exclusive Origin of Creation and Governance
To God belongs all creation and governance, and the purpose and reason for this is that He may requite those who do evil… Now, in the Qurʾan, when God speaks about requital and recompense, this pertains to the Day of Resurrection. Equally, doing good and evil relates to obeying and disobeying God.
The Hostage of Deeds
The person is a piece of collateral that God holds as a security for his deeds, whether good or evil, until He can repay him in full for what he has done in this world, whether in the form of reward or punishment. Therefore, if God diminishes anything from his deeds and does not deliver his recompense in full, he would not truly be a hostage to what he has earned but merely a hostage to some of what he has earned, in which case someone else might be given the remainder of it.
True Possession and Striving
As for all the things that a person believes are his possessions by virtue of his social reality, such as wealth, children, status, and the like thereof, these are merely trinkets and ornaments of this worldly life. All of these supposed possessions are only his as a matter of ephemeral social convention. If they remain with a person at all, it is only for so long as he inhabits this fleeting realm of delusion, and as soon as he wishes to move to the next life, he must leave them behind. Therefore, the meaning of the verse is: 'And it is in the scriptures of Abraham and Moses that a person does not truly possess anything good or evil, or any benefit or harm, except what he strives for through his actions in this world.'
The Intercession of Striving
But what about the fact that those guilty of major sins may benefit from the intercession of intercessors on the Day of Resurrection? The intercession they receive is a result of their noble efforts, insofar as they entered the realm of faith in God and in His signs. The same is true of the believer who benefits for the prayers of others for his forgiveness after his death, or the good deeds whose rewards are gifted to him—all of these benefits are the result of him entering the ranks of the faithful, being a part of their community, and supporting their faith.
Conjecture and the Demand for Knowledge
'Knowledge' (ʿilm) refers to something that is undeniably true, while 'conjecture' (ẓann) refers to the more likely of two possibilities, while the less likely of two possibilities is 'supposition' (wahm)… and indeed conjecture is no substitute for the truth: 'Truth' (ḥaqq) means 'something as it is really is', and it appears from the verse that this can only be obtained through knowledge (ʿilm), which refers to an undeniable belief, and nothing else. As for levels of belief other than knowledge, which admit the possibility of their opposites being true, there is no guarantee that these beliefs represent their objects as they truly are in reality.
The Sincere Turning — Repentance That Does Not Return
A sincere turning (al-tawbah al-naṣūḥ) is a form of repentance which turns the doer away from the misdeed permanently, saving them from ever returning to it; therefore, they never do it again. It first commands the faithful to guard themselves and their families against the fire and then enjoins them to repentance. As a consequence, they may have hope that God will cover their misdeeds and bring them into gardens beneath which rivers flow.
Creation Oriented Toward Goodness as Its Goal
Virtuousness and good deeds, if demanded and desired, are demanded and desired for other than themselves, and not for themselves. The actual desired thing is the pure paradisiacal life uncontaminated with defects where futility and sin do not present themselves to it. Thus this verse is in the meaning of Every soul must taste of death and We try you by evil and good by way of probation; and to Us you shall be brought back.
Intellectual Hearing and the Elite Who Benefit from the Intellect
More often than not, it is the general public that benefits from the faculty of hearing/listening. This is due to their failure to intellectually apprehend the minuteness and depth of matters, understand their realities, and be guided to their benefits and evil. It is only the elite that benefit from the intellect. Therefore, the clause Had we but listened or pondered has the meaning of 'listened' to be the positive response to the call of the messengers and to abide by or comply with what their speech entailed.
The Trait of Arrogance Hardened Into the Soul
The human being earns his own happiness in the hereafter through prostration—that is, humility—towards God, acknowledging Him alone as Lord in this world, until he acquires the trait of humility, which thereby brings him happiness on the day of resurrection. Since these guilty rejectors did not prostrate to God in this world, they will be unable to do so in the hereafter. Since they were too arrogant to prostrate to God in this world, God let them descend into perdition, step by step, until they sunk into utter wretchedness.
The Souls Pledged to Their Deeds
Every soul is a pledge in the sense that God has a right over every soul, where everyone must fulfill their duty to God through faith and righteous deeds. Therefore, every soul is pledged, held and confined with God until they pay their due to Him. If they believe and act righteously, then they will be released and freed. If they disbelieve and sin—and die in such a state—then they will remain confined as a hostage forever.
The Pristine Nature and Its Distortion
If people turn away from what is perceived by their reason and their innate disposition (fiṭrah); if they persist with pursuing their desires; if they embrace falsehood; if they infringe on the rights of others; and if they recognize no limits in their greed for good—then it means that they have turned God's blessing to damnation. God gave them an instinct through which they could achieve the good of both worlds, but they are now using it as a means to damnation and loss.
Human Ungratefulness as Concealment of Truth
What is meant by kufr (ungratefulness, disbelief) is any concealment of the truth in its general sense. That would include rejecting God's Lordship, and refraining from His worship. The human being has no justification or excuse for their concealment of the truth. It is more than evident that they are created from an insignificant drop of sperm which does not control anything of its initial creation, nor its subsequent direction of affairs throughout its life, death and resurrection.