respect to reason and cause. Because divine determining looks to the true causes and acts justly. Men construct their judgements on causes which they see superficially and fall into error within the pure justice of divine determining. For example, a judge finds you guilty of theft and sends you to prison. You are not a thief, but you have committed a murder which no one knows about. Thus, divine determining also sentenced you to imprisonment, but it sentenced you for the secret murder and acted justly. Since the judge sentenced you for a theft of which you were innocent, he acted unjustly. Thus, in a single thing the justice of divine determining and divine creation and man’s wrongful choice or acquisition were apparent in two respects; you can make analogies with this for other things. That is to say, divine determining and creation are exempt from evil, ugliness, and tyranny with regard to origin and end, source and branch, cause and results.

If it is said: “Man has no ability to create with his power of choice and has nothing apart from ‘acquisition,’ which is as though theoretical, so how is it that in the Qur’an of Miraculous Exposition he is shown to be rebellious and hostile towards the Creator of the heavens and the earth, Who complains greatly about him; the Creator mobilizes Himself and all His angels to assist His believing servants against the rebellious, affording them the greatest importance?”

The Answer: Because disbelief, rebellion, and evil are destruction and non-existence. However, vast destruction and innumerable instances of non-existence may result from a single theoretical matter and one instance of non-existence. If the helmsman of a large ship abandons his duty, the ship may sink and the labour of all those employed on it go for nothing; all those instances of destruction will result from a single instance of non-existence. Similarly, since disbelief and rebellion are non-existence and destruction, the power of choice may provoke them with a theoretical matter and cause awesome consequences. For although disbelief is only one evil, it insults the whole universe, accusing it of worthlessness and futility, and denies all beings, which display proofs of divine unity, and is contemptuous towards all the manifestations of the divine names. It is therefore pure wisdom that Almighty God utters severe complaints about the unbelievers, threatening them awesomely in the name of the universe and all beings and the divine names; it is pure justice that they should suffer eternal punishment. Since through unbelief and rebellion man takes the way of destruction, with a small act of service, he may perform a great many works. In the face of unbelief therefore, the believers are in need of Almighty God’s boundless grace. For if one troublesome child tries to burn