It is a matter of difference, and it consists of eighteen verses [revealed after the prohibition] 'In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful'. The two circumstances are presented to indicate by their precedence the meaning of the exclusivity of sovereignty and praise to Allah, the Exalted. This is because sovereignty, in reality, belongs to Him, as He is the originator of everything and its creator, the one who sustains it, and the one who oversees it. Likewise, praise, because the roots and branches of blessings are from Him. As for the sovereignty of others, it is a delegation from Him and a calling to account, and their praise is a recognition that the blessing of Allah has come through their hands. He is the one who created you, so among you is the disbeliever and among you is the believer. This means: among you is one who brings disbelief and acts upon it. [[The statement 'among you is one who brings disbelief and acts upon it' has been interpreted according to the doctrine of the Mu'tazila: that the servant is the creator of his voluntary actions, and the doctrine of Ahl al-Sunnah: that the servant has in his actions only acquisition, and their true creator is Allah, the Exalted, as evidenced by His saying: 'And Allah created you and what you do, whether good or evil.' Just as the creation of the disbeliever does not warrant blame, as will be said, the creation of his disbelief does not warrant blame because it is for a wisdom that is hidden from us. (A)]] And among you is one who brings faith. [[Mahamud said: 'Its meaning is: among you is one who brings disbelief and acts upon it, and among you is one who brings faith... etc.' Ahmad said: 'He has stumbled blindly and groped blindly, and has plunged into a difficult path: the one who walks in it is doomed, and the one who lingers in it is hindered. He only leads to the depths of destruction and hovers around the pastures of polytheism, and he searches but to his own demise, and he pretends to be clever, but he is merely boasting, and he claims to be certain, but he is merely sinful. Even if he turns away from the rational evidence and the numerous textual proofs that Allah, the Exalted, is the creator of everything, and he has claimed in the witness what he has claimed. And from his doctrine is the analogy of the unseen to the seen, he has resorted to acknowledging that Allah is the creator of the servant who commits evil, and that the creation of the servant who commits evil is like giving a sharp sword to a wicked man, and that this is blameworthy in the witness, and it does not necessarily mean that it is blameworthy in the creation of Allah, the Exalted. Is it not permissible that it is encompassed by a wisdom that Allah, the Exalted, has kept knowledge of? What reassures him from the claim that the actions of the servant, even if they are deemed reprehensible by rational people, are created by Allah, the Exalted, and in their creation is a wisdom that Allah has kept knowledge of? And what is the difference if not the essence of control and the very following of desires? This is while he is unable to follow these principles: that he may be able to mix the thorny plant, and from the camels that he may enter through the eye of a needle.]] And he acts upon it, as His saying: 'And We made in their descendants prophethood and the Book, so among them is one who is guided, and many of them are disobedient.' The evidence for this is His saying: 'And Allah is All-Seer of what you do,' meaning: He is aware of your disbelief and your faith, which are from your actions. The meaning is: He is the one who has favored you with the origin of blessings, which is creation and existence from non-existence, so it is necessary that you look with correct insight and that you all be grateful servants. Yet, what you have done with your ability is that you have branched into factions and divided into nations, so among you is a disbeliever and among you is a believer. Disbelief was mentioned first because it is predominant among them and more common among them. It is said: He is the one who created you, so among you is a disbeliever in creation, and they are the eternalists, and among you is a believer in Him.

If you say: Yes, indeed, the servants are the doers of disbelief, but it has already been established in the knowledge of the Wise One that when He created them, they would do nothing but disbelief and would not choose anything else. What then prompted Him to create them, knowing what would come from them? And is the creation of the ugly and the creator of the ugly anything but one? And is it not like one who gives a sharp sword to someone who brandishes it to cut off the way and kill the sanctified soul, and he kills a believer with it? Do not the wise agree on condemning the giver and rebuking him and striking him on the head, just as they condemn the killer? Rather, their reproach of the giver is even more severe? I say: We have known that Allah is Wise, All-Knowing of the ugliness of the ugly, and All-Knowing of His independence from it. We have known that all His actions are good, and the creation of the doer of the ugly is his action, so it must be good, and it must have a good aspect. The concealment of the aspect of goodness from us does not detract from its goodness, just as the ignorance of the wisdom behind the creation of many of His creatures does not detract from their goodness by the truth of the correct purpose and the profound wisdom, which is that He made them the abodes of those accountable so that they may act and be rewarded. And He fashioned you, so He made your forms good, and it has been recited: 'your forms' with a kasra, so that you may be grateful. And to Him is your return, so your reward is based on gratitude and neglect of it. If you say: How did He make their forms good? I say: He made them the best of all animals and the most beautiful, as evidenced by the fact that a person does not wish for his form to be contrary to what he sees in other forms. Among the goodness of his form is that he was created upright and not hunched, as He, the Exalted, said: 'in the best of stature.' If you say: But how many are there who are ugly, deformed in form, and repulsive in creation that eyes cannot bear? I say: There is no repulsiveness, but beauty, like other meanings, has levels and ranks. The degradation of some forms from the ranks above them is a clear degradation, and attributing them to the superior forms is not pleasing, otherwise they are included in the realm of beauty and do not exceed its limit. Do you not see that you may admire a form and find it pleasing, yet you do not see the world in it? Then you see something more beautiful and higher in the ranks of beauty than it, and your gaze turns away from the first, and you find it burdensome to look at it after being captivated by it and being infatuated with it. The philosophers have said: Two things have no limit: beauty and eloquence. He alerted by His knowledge what is in the heavens and the earth, then by His knowledge what the servants conceal and what they declare, then by His knowledge of the contents of the breasts: that nothing of the universals and particulars is hidden from Him nor absent from Him. It is right that He should be feared and warned against, and that no one should dare to do anything that contradicts His pleasure. The repetition of knowledge is in the meaning of the repetition of warning, and all that He mentioned after His saying: 'So among you are disbelievers and among you are believers,' as you see, is in the meaning of the warning against disbelief, and the denial that the Creator can be disobeyed and His favor not be thanked. How ignorant is the one who mixes disbelief with creation and makes it part of it, while creation is the greatest blessing from Allah upon His servants, and disbelief is the greatest ingratitude from the servants to their Lord.