Rather...

Rather, they comprise a Divine precedent, that is based on a second Divine precedent called “universal guidance.” By universal guidance, we mean Allah’s (awj) guidance of all creation (whether they be conscious or not), as it relates to man.

To clarify, we must first describe the three types of Divine guidance: One type of guidance is intended only for the most pious people and has been negated from other groups in the following verses of the Qur`an: “Allah does not guide the wrongdoing ones,” and “Allah does not guide the corrupt ones.” The converse of this kind of guidance is misguidance. Another type of guidance known as “legislative guidance” entails showing someone the path.

This kind of guidance addresses both believers and disbelievers, but does not benefit inanimate beings. Examples of this kind of guidance are in the following verses: “We showed him the path while he is either grateful or ungrateful[^2],” and “As for (the people of) Thamud, we guided them, but they preferred blindness to guidance.”[^3] The third kind of guidance is universal both in terms of the beings who are guided and the resulting guidance and is also called existential guidance.

This is the guidance referred to in the following verse: “Our Sustainer is He who gave everything its existence, and then guided it.” [^4] This verse implies that Allah’s (awj) universal guidance includes all creation, whether conscious or inanimate.

In another verse, the Qur`an states, “who created and proportioned; who determined and guided.” [^5] Here, the verb “to determine” (taqdir) entails the facilitation of the appropriate means of a given thing so that it is “guided” to fulfil the purpose for which it was created. All of creation - whether conscious or inanimate - attains its intended purpose through this third type of existential guidance.

However man, who is more than just a physical being living in this material world, requires more than the existential guidance afforded to all creation. He can only attain perfection by choosing his path according to his free will. For this reason, Allah must on the one hand, provide a set of positive and negative commands entailed in the shari’ah (divine law) so that man can choose to either obey or disobey.