As for the saying of Allah...

As for the saying of Allah: Whomsoever Allah desires to guide, He enlarges his breast to Islam; “and whomsoever He desires to lead astray, He makes his breast narrow and constricted [6:125]” [^2] on which the Predestinarians are dependent in this matter, then there is no support for the advocates of predestination in this; since the meaning of the verse is that if Allah intends to bestow His grace and favor on man as the reward of his obedience, then He will enlarge his breast to Islam and endow him with His favors, by which he is enabled to continue in obedience.

Thus, hidayah (guidance) signifies here ni‘mah (grace). Allah says in the Qur’an, relating the speech of the people of Paradise: All praise is due to Allah, Who guided us to this [7:43], which means, 'Praise be to Allah Who favoured us with His guidance and rewarded us for it'. In the same manner, dalal (error) is equivalent to punishment in the saying of Allah: Surely the sinners are in error and insanity! [54:47].

Thus Allah called His punishment error and His grace guidance, and this because basically 'error' is equivalent to 'destruction' and 'guidance' to 'salvation'. Allah, the Almighty, relating the speech of the Arab polytheists, says: What, when we have gone astray in the earth, shall we indeed be (again) in a new creation? [32:10], which means, 'when we have been destroyed'.

Thus the meaning of the verse, 'If Allah wills to guide' and 'If Allah wills to lead him astray', is as demonstrated above; as, also, the interpretation of the saying of Allah, 'makes his breast narrow and constricted', is that He will withhold His succor from him as punishment for his rebelliousness and deprive him of the favours He bestowed upon him in retribution for his evil doing.

Hence, the enlarging of the breast is the reward for obedience shown by men which itself came only by the succour of Allah, (sharhu 's-sadr: thawabu 't- ta‘ah bi 't-tawfiq), whereas the narrowing. of the breast is the punishment of rebelliousness, which in itself results from the withholding of (Divine) succour, (tadyiqu 's-sadr: ‘iqabu 'l- ma‘siyah biman‘i 't-tawfiq).

Thus, there is no support in the verse given above for the opponents (i.e., opponents of free will), who allege that Allah, Almighty, turns men away from faith, and prevents them from accepting Islam, and that it is His intention they should not believe and His will that they should err.