The Quran

Preface

أَينَما تَكونوا يُدرِككُمُ المَوتُ وَلَو كُنتُم في بُروجٍ مُشَيَّدَةٍ ۗ وَإِن تُصِبهُم حَسَنَةٌ يَقولوا هٰذِهِ مِن عِندِ اللَّهِ ۖ وَإِن تُصِبهُم سَيِّئَةٌ يَقولوا هٰذِهِ مِن عِندِكَ ۚ قُل كُلٌّ مِن عِندِ اللَّهِ ۖ فَمالِ هٰؤُلاءِ القَومِ لا يَكادونَ يَفقَهونَ حَديثًا

Yusuf Ali

“Wherever ye are, death will find you out, even if ye are in towers built up strong and high!” If some good befalls them, they say, “This is from God.; but if evil, they say, “This is from thee” (O Prophet).¹ Say: “All things are from God.” But what hath come to these people, that they fail to understand a single fact?

The Hypocrites were inconsistent, and in this reflect unregenerate mankind. If a disaster happens, due to their own folly, they blame somebody else; but if they are fortunate, they claim reflected credit by pretending that Heaven has favoured them because of their own superior merits. The modern critic discards even this pretence, eliminates Heaven altogether, and claims all credit direct to himself, unless he brings in blind chance, but that he does mostly to “explain” misfortune. If we look to the Ultimate Cause of all things, all things come from God. But if we look to the proximate cause of things, our own merit is so small, that we can hardly claim credit for good ourselves with any fairness. In God’s hand is all good: 3:26- On the other hand, the proximate cause of our evil is due to some wrong in our own inner selves; for never are we dealt with unjustly in the very least: 4:77.