Yunus: (99) "And had your Lord willed..."

(And had your Lord willed, those on earth would have believed—all of them together.) This is a verification that the faith of all morally responsible beings—both in its existence and non-existence—revolves absolutely around the axis of His Will, glory be to Him, after having explained that the disbelief of the disbelievers is a consequence of His Word. The object of the "will" here is omitted, as is customary in similar instances; meaning: "Had He, glory be to Him, willed the faith of those on earth from among the two species (jinn and mankind), all of them would have believed," such that not a single one would be excluded, "all of them," meaning assembled upon faith, not differing in it.

However, He did not will that, because He, glory be to Him, does not will except what He knows, and He does not know except that which has an essence in itself. As for that which has no essence at all, He does not know it, and what He does not know, He does not will. Al-Kurani, may mercy be upon him, adopted this explanation, and he authored detailed works defending it in more than one treatise. The majority, however, hold that He, glory be to Him, does not will it because it contradicts the wisdom upon which the foundations of creation and legislation are built.

This verse is an argument against the Mu'tazila, who claim that Allah, the Exalted, willed faith from all creatures, yet only some of them believed. According to them, "will" is of two types: delegated [tafwidiyyah], from which the act may deviate; and compulsory [qasriyyah], from which the act may not deviate. They interpreted what is in the verse according to the latter, so the meaning for them is: "Had your Lord willed—with a will of coercion and compulsion—the faith of the two species, they would have believed." But He, glory be to Him, did not will it as such; rather, He commanded them to believe, created in them the choice for it and its opposite, and delegated the matter to them; so whoever wills, let him believe, and whoever wills, let him disbelieve. This is their habit regarding every verse that appears to invalidate their position.

The rebuttal to this is that there is no indication [in the text] for such a restriction, especially since His, the Exalted’s, saying, "Then, [O Muhammad], would you compel the people?" rejects it, as has been said. The hamza is for denial, and because of its priority [in the sentence], it is brought forward—contrary to its original position—as held by the majority. The 'fa' (then) is for derivation, and the intent is to derive the denial from what preceded it. Furthermore, there is no basis for considering the will of compulsion and coercion specifically as the source from which the denial is derived.

It was said that the hamza is in its [original] place, and the conjunction is [connected] to an implicit [clause] upon which the discourse flows, as if it were said: "Does your Lord not will that, so you [intend to] compel them?"

(Until they become believers). The denial is directed toward the arrangement of the aforementioned compulsion based on the lack of His, the Exalted’s, will; and the refusal [of the people to believe] remains the refusal. Therefore, the "will" must be understood in its absolute sense, and "the people" refers to those upon whom it was imprinted, or all of them as an exaggeration.

It is permissible that "you" be the subject of an implicit [verb] explained by what follows it, or that it be a nominal subject whose predicate is the following sentence; they consider it a semantic subject, and its fronting is to strengthen the judgment of denial, as the Sharif—may his secret be sanctified—held in his commentary on Al-Miftah. He mentioned therein that the intent is to deny the occurrence of the act from the addressee, not to deny that he is the agent while the act itself is established. It was also said that the fronting is for specification, signifying that compulsion is a possible matter, but the issue is who is the compeller? And it is none but He, glory be to Him, alone, with no one to share with Him in it, because He, majestic is His glory, is the One capable of acting upon their hearts in a way that compels them to faith, and that is not possible for human beings.