13 Preface وَلَو شِئنا لَآتَينا كُلَّ نَفسٍ هُداها وَلٰكِن حَقَّ القَولُ مِنّي لَأَملَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنَ الجِنَّةِ وَالنّاسِ أَجمَعينَYusuf AliIf We had so willed,1 We could certainly have brought every soul its true guidance: but the Word from Me2 will come true, “I will fill Hell with Jinns and men all together.”Could evil have been averted? Certainly everything is in God’s power. If it had been His Will and Plan, He could have created a world in which there would have been no choice or will in any of His creatures. But that was not His Will and Plan. In the world as we see it, man has a certain amount of choice and free will. That being so, He has provided Signs and means of instruction for man, in order that man’s will may be straight and pure. A necessary corollary will be Punishment for the infractions of His Law. That Punishment must come to pass, for God’s Word is true and must be fulfilled (Cf. n. 30 and n. 3557).Cf. 11:119, n. 1623, and 7:18, and see last note. Jinns are the evil spirits that tempt men, and the men who will suffer punishment will be those who have succumbed to their temptations.