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huwa lladhī khalaqakum fa-minkum kāfirun wa-minkum muʾminun wa-llāhu bi-mā taʿmalūna baṣīrun
It is He who created you. Then some of you are faithless and some of you are faithful, and Allah watches what you do.
— Ali Quli Qarai
64At-TaghābunالتغابنVerse 2 of 18
The Mutual Disillusion64. At-Taghābunالتغابن
al-Taghābun
The Mutual Disillusion
MedinanVerse 2 of 18
Surah al-Taghabun – Verse 2
2. He it is Who created you and granted you freedom such that some of you are disbelievers and some of you are believers. And Allah is the All-Seer of what you do.
The antecedent of the pronoun
is the word Allah in the preceding Verse. Besides being a Divine Attribute, the pronoun reflects that you are created by the Lord Who is the Absolute Owner and Sovereign, though some of you amongst human beings have shown ingratitude to the Lord following your creation and disbelieved Divinity and failed to glorify and praise the All-Glorious and All-Majestic God Almighty. Nonetheless, some of you submitted to Divine Command and believed in and followed the Path of Truth. You are supposed to know that God Almighty is All-Aware of what you have concealed in your hearts.
Some Qur’anic exegetes maintain that the blessed Verse indicates that man is free in committing his deeds, since he ascribes the Creation of mankind to himself. God Almighty is the One Who created you, but following the Creation, some of you disbelieved and some of you believed. In other words, men enjoyed the free choice to either believe or disbelieve. The blessed Verse refutes the claims of the Ash‘aris and the determinists who maintain that belief and disbelief stem from Divine Will, since God Almighty may accept or refuse to accept the belief or disbelief.
Furthermore, the deterministic claims are against Divine Justice and entail certain restrictions in tormenting the disbelievers, amongst which mention may be made of the nullification of sending Messengers and Revelation of Scriptures and Guidance as well as Divine Promises and Warnings. In other words, determinists are supposed to abandon mankind like beasts, since God Almighty wills that some people believe in Divine Unity and others refuse to do so. Such unfounded claim stands against common sense and the beliefs held by all the wise the world over who maintain that man is capable of learning.
Furthermore, man is capable of making free choices rather than being predestined to act in any way. Man’s deeds reflect his beliefs as a consequence of which the blessed Verse says that God Almighty is All-Aware of your deeds rather than saying God Almighty is All-Aware of your disbelief and belief.