the Real. This is the Real whom the Revealed Law has established for the servants. We name Him by what He has named Himself and describe Him by what He has described His essence, adding nothing to what He has conveyed to us and inventing no names for Him from ourselves.
As for the dispute of unbelievers over their differing beliefs, the Lawgiver is one of them insofar as he takes an approach concerning the Real that they have not taken, since they do not believe. The judge between the two—I mean between the Revealed Law and the unbelieving rational thinkers—is only God. Through the forms of His self-disclosure the decision between them occurs, but in the Hereafter, not here.
In the Hereafter the ruling of compulsion appears, leaving no disputant there at all. Kingship there belongs to God, the One, the Subduer [Ghafir 40:16]. Claims depart from their claimants, and the believers remain there as masters of the Standing over everyone within it.
(Considering the Welfare of the Possible Things)
As for this presence’s consideration of the welfare of the possible things, know that when you consider possible things in terms of their essences, no alternative among the alternatives they receive is determined as having prior claim over another. The Lord considers what has priority concerning their existence and nonexistence, their precedence and delay in existence, their place and standing. He establishes the correspondences between them and their times, places, and states.
He intends what is most beneficial in the possible thing’s case and brings it forth therein, for He brings it forth only that it may glorify Him
