The Quran

156

Preface

۞ وَاكتُب لَنا في هٰذِهِ الدُّنيا حَسَنَةً وَفِي الآخِرَةِ إِنّا هُدنا إِلَيكَ ۚ قالَ عَذابي أُصيبُ بِهِ مَن أَشاءُ ۖ وَرَحمَتي وَسِعَت كُلَّ شَيءٍ ۚ فَسَأَكتُبُها لِلَّذينَ يَتَّقونَ وَيُؤتونَ الزَّكاةَ وَالَّذينَ هُم بِآياتِنا يُؤمِنونَ

Yusuf Ali

“And ordain for us that which is good, in this life and in the Hereafter: for we have turned unto Thee.” He said: “With My punishment I visit whom I will; but My mercy extendeth¹ to all things. That (mercy) I shall ordain for those who do right, and practise regular charity, and those who believe in Our signs;-²

God’s mercy is in and for all things. All nature subserves a common purpose, which is for the good of all His creatures. Our faculties and our understandings are all instances of His grace and mercy. Each unit or factor among His creatures benefits from the others and receives them as God’s mercy to itself; and in its turn, each contributes to the benefit of the others and is thus an instance of God’s mercy to them. His mercy is universal and all-pervasive; while His justice and punishment are reserved for those who swerve from His plan and (to use a medieval juridicial formula) go out of His Peace.
The personal grace and mercy? and their opposite?are referred to the singular pronoun “I”, while the impersonal Law, by which God’s Signs operate in His universe, is referred to the plural pronoun of authority and dignity, “We”.