And he said (May Allah be pleased with him):

166. Let not your asking be the cause of His giving, for then your understanding of Him might diminish. Let your asking be for the sake of showing servanthood and fulfilling the rights of Lordship.

167. How can your subsequent asking be the cause of His prior giving?

168. Far be it for the decree of the Eternal (hukmu’l-azal) to be subject to contingent causes (al-‘ilal)!

169. His providential care (‘inaayatuh) of you is not due to anything coming from you. Where were you when He confronted you with His providence or met you face-to-face with His care? Neither sincerity of deeds nor the existence of states have any being in His Eternity. Instead, only pure bestowing and sublime giving are there.

170. He knew that servants would anticipate the emergence of the mystery of Providence (sirr’l-‘inaaya) in themselves, so He said, “He chooses whom He pleases for His Mercy.” [Quran 2:105] And He knew that, had He left them at that, they would have abandoned all effort by relying on the Eternal, so He said “Surely the Mercy of Allah is nigh to the doers of good.” [Quran 7:56]

171. Everything depends on the Divine Will (al-mashee’a), but It Itself depends on nothing at all.

Chapter XIX, next