One of the six pillars of faith is: “That all good and evil are from Allah.”

Whatever good comes to you it is from Allah, but whatever evil comes to you it is from your self (from complying with your conditioned beliefs including your alleged ‘moral codes’). We have revealed you as a Rasul for the people. Sufficient is Allah, as your essence with His Names, as a Witness for you.[1]

The verse preceding this is:

Death will find you wherever you are. Even if you were within tall and sturdy towers... But if good comes to them, they say, “This is from Allah”; and if evil befalls them, they say, “This is from you.” Say, “All of it is from Allah!” What is the matter with people that they do not try to understand the reality![2]

“If good comes to them… if evil befalls them…”

Let us first examine and understand what the word “evil” denotes in this verse…

What is evil? To whom do we do evil and how? To whom do we do good and how?

What do the words good and evil mean?

When I do something that is aligned with your natural programming I will have done good to you, according to your understanding and perception!

And when I do something that goes against your nature I will have done “evil”, again, according to your understanding and perception.

But in reality, it’s actually the other way around! It’s when I do something against your nature that I do good to you, and when I do something aligned with your nature that I do evil by you! This is according to the REALITY! 

Fighting has been ordained for you, even though you despise it. Perhaps you dislike a thing that is good for you and like a thing that is bad for you. Allah knows, but you know not.[3]

Basically, what we call evil is something that goes against your nature, temperament, compositional make-up. This is from the perspective of your “composition.” 

Say: What you perceive as evil is from Allah i.e. not from Muhammad! 

The concepts of good and evil are only valid from the perspective of your composition.

Anything that suits your composition you call good and anything that doesn’t suit your composition you call it evil.

But in reality, only Allah knows what good and evil are. 

Therefore, we must accept that both good and evil are from Allah.

Since the essence of the self is a composition of divine names, when we say it is from you, your ‘self’ (nafs) we are in effect saying it is from Allah, i.e. from the composition comprising your being.

In this light, is not the source of what we call evil, Allah?

Not Allah, Rabb!

Because there are no opposites with Allah. Opposites and limits are only applicable to the composition.

Even though the essence and source of the composition is Allah, because it is in the form of a composition, it is described as the ‘self’! Hence any evil act is prescribed to the self not to Allah! The fact that it is evil is according to the self anyway. Nothing is evil in the sight of Allah!

You only call it evil because it discomforts your compositional make-up. If you elevate to higher levels of consciousness and overcome the limits of your composition you are no longer going to perceive it as evil, you’re simply going to say it is from Allah and go about your day… Neither good nor evil is going to remain in your sight!

To reiterate, evil is anything that goes against the composition, and it is according to the composition, or any action that constricts and confines your composition.

In the divine sense and as a divine warning, the word evil refers to things that protect and preserve your composition. 

Evil used in this sense seems attractive to you because it befits your composition and allows you to remain in your comfort zone. On the other hand, this is considered evil in the divine sense, because it keeps you confined to your illusory identity, so even though it seems good to you it is evil in reality.

But in the end, they are all from the effects of the divine names, hence the verse says:

Say, “All of it is from Allah!” What is the matter with people that they do not try to understand the reality![4]

And indeed, Allah has determined a measure (fate) for all things.[5]

“Things” in the verse above refers to everything, form, meaning etc. All of it has been created upon a particular fate and lives according to this. In the general sense things refers to humans and hence it is said, “Allah has determined his fate” indeed “the fate of man is the hands of Allah!”

What does it mean for man’s fate to be predetermined by Allah?

As we have already discussed, the being referred to as a human is nothing other than the manifestation of the different compositions of the divine names. 

The manifestation of these meanings in this way is again generated by the Being that encompasses all of these meanings. Once it is determined that this unit of existence will be formed with this particular proportion of these particular names, its fate is set!