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Sura 16
Aya 50
50
يَخافونَ رَبَّهُم مِن فَوقِهِم وَيَفعَلونَ ما يُؤمَرونَ ۩

Muhammad Asad

they fear their Sustainer high above them, and do whatever they are bidden to do.1
  • I.e., they must, by virtue of their nature, obey the impulses implanted in them by God and are, therefore, incapable of what is described as "sinning". Man, however, is fundamentally different in this respect. In contrast with the natural sinlessness of "every beast that moves, and the angels", man is endowed with free will in the moral sense of this term: he can choose between right and wrong and therefore he can, and often does, sin. But even while he sins he is subject to the universal law of cause and effect instituted by God and referred to in the Qur'an as sunnat Allah ("God's way"): hence the Qur'anic statement that "before God prostrate themselves, willingly or unwillingly, all [things and beings] that are in the heavens and on earth" (13:15).