If he obeys the Divine injunctions...

If he obeys the Divine injunctions, he has on his own accord aligned his desire to what Allah desires and as such, is pleased with the Divine generative will, and with this correct decision, has secured a felicitous end for himself.

If he disobeys, if he does not make Allah’s desire his own desire, he has acted only to his own disadvantage, without in any way damaging the creation or harming Allah for Allah has through His generative will, granted him the capacity to defy and disobey but has at the same time, through His legislative will, warned him of the consequences. Thus, by making the wrong decision of disobeying Allah, he has incurred Allah’s wrath.

Although he might arrogantly think that in doing so, he has overcome Allah’s will, the reality of the matter is that the creature can never, even while disobeying, escape the Divine domain, power, and will. The creature is always in need of that Most Sacred Essence.

It is to this that the following verse speaks: “Whatever good befalls you is from Allah, and whatever ill befalls you is from yourself.” (3) Although in essence, everything is from Allah for nothing can occur without His consent, but the issue is that He does not deem misdeeds and evil appropriate for the human being, and it is the human being himself who, in misusing his free will, chooses evil.

However, we do admit that to conceive and comprehend the relationship of human volition to Divine will- i.e. the immutable cosmological system- is difficult. It is precisely for this reason that those who are not in touch with Divine revelation and the school of Ahlul Bayt (a.s) have strayed to antipodal extremes in this regard.

One group, the Mu’tazilites, concluded that the human being has been granted absolute autonomy, and as such is the only agent involved in his actions—and for this, they have been termed The Delegators ; (4) another group, the Ash’arites, saw the human being as lacking any role in conducting his actions, hence being compelled in his actions, without free will and the right to choose- and for this, they have been termed The Compelled Ones .

But the truth and the right path is the intermediate path, that is, neither the theory of compulsion nor delegation. The generative will of Allah concurs with human will in a vertical manner. If the human being obeys, the Divine legislative will and the human will are in harmony, but if he disobeys, his will and action are despised by Allah.