Predestination
LVI.
A soul cannot die unless by permission of God, according to a writing of God, definite as to time.
(iii. 139.)
LVII.
They say [whose companions were slain at the battle of Oḥod], ‘If aught of the affair had been submitted to us we had not been slain here.’155 Say, Had ye been in your houses, those of you who were decreed to be slain had gone forth to the places where they lie.
(iii. 148.)
LVIII.
Wheresoever ye be, death will overtake you, although you be in lofty towers. If good fortune betide them,156 they say, ‘This is from God!’ But if evil betide them, they say, ‘This is from thee, O Moḥammad!’ Say, All is from God. And what aileth this people that they are not near to understanding what is said unto them?
Whatsoever good betideth thee, O man, it is from God; and whatsoever evil betideth thee, from thyself is it.
(iv. 80, 81.)
LIX.
†No soul can believe but by the permission of God.
(x. 100.)
LX.
†And whoso willeth taketh the way to his Lord: But ye shall not will it, unless God will it.
(lxxvi. 29, 30.)
LXI.
†Expend in the way of God, and throw not yourselves into destruction.157
(ii. 191.)