al-Zumar

إِنْ تَكْفُرُوا فَإِنَّ اللَّهَ غَنِيٌّ عَنْكُمْ وَلا يَرْضَی لِعِبَادِهِ الْكُفْرَ وَإِنْ تَشْكُرُوا يَرْضَهُ لَكُمْ وَلا تَزِرُ وَازِرَةٌ وِزْرَ أُخْرَی ثُمَّ إِلَی رَبِّكُمْ مَرْجِعُكُمْ فَيُنَبِّئُكُمْ بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ إِنَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِذَاتِ الصُّدُورِ

7. If you disbelieve, then indeed Allah is not in need of you; He likes not disbelief for His servants. And if you are grateful, He is pleased therewith for you. No bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another. Then to your Lord is your return, and He will inform you what you used to do. Indeed, He is the Omniscient of that which is in breasts.

The preceding Verse treats of Divine Bounties in the creation of man and the provisions bestowed upon him by God. Verse seven makes mention of man’s obligation which is his gratitude for the bestowal of Divine Bounties. Therefore, the blessed Verse in question says:

since His servants will reap the recompense of their disbelief and gratitude. It further adds that Divine Needlessness does not mean that His servants are not supposed to be grateful for the Divine Bounties bestowed upon them nor are they permitted to disbelieve, since obligation is another Divine Bounty,

The Verse in question proceeds with treating of another question, namely any man’s responsibility for his acts and deeds, since the question of obligation will remain incomplete without such obligation:

It is worthy of note that obligation without recompense is meaningless. The Verse closes with the question of Resurrection and man’s return to God Who shall inform him of his past deeds:

It is worthy of note that Divine Reward and Retribution of human acts and deeds necessitate being fully aware of secrets. Thus the Verse comes to Its close:

Therefore, the philosophy of obligation, its characteristics, human responsibility, and Divine Reward and Retribution are expressed in concise and consistent clauses. In the mean time, the Verse is a decisive reply to the followers of the school of predestination whose number among Islamic schools of thought has been unfortunately large. The blessed Verse explicitly says:

which clearly bears testimony to the fact that contrary to the false belief maintained by the followers of the school of predestination it is not His Will that disbelievers disbelieve in Him, since as long as He is not pleased with something, He will not will it. Divine Will and Satisfaction are not apart. It is a source of wonder that the biased have made attempts to conceal the evident meaning of the clause by restricting the meaning of:

to the pious or the infallible; however the word in question clearly embraces all servants. God is never pleased with any of His servant’s disbelief in the same manner that He is pleased with their gratitude. It is also noteworthy that everyone’s responsibility against his own acts and deeds are acknowledged by all Divine religions.¹¹ It is also possible that a wrong doer may have an accomplice the render him support in one way or another, an instance of which is the one who innovates some vicious thing or tradition and whoever acts upon them will be responsible like the innovator against the sin of innovation of vicious things.¹²