Fāṭir: (8) Is it one for whom his evil deed has been made fair...?

Then the Almighty said:

{Is it one for whom his evil deed has been made fair, so he deems it good? Then surely Allāh leaves astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills. So let not your soul go toward them in grief.}

This means that the one who does evil is not like the one who does good, just as He said later in the verses: "And the blind and the seeing are not equal, nor are the darknesses and the light."

This has a connection to what preceded it, in that when the Almighty clarified the state of the disbelieving evildoer and the believing doer of good, and since no one admits that they do evil except a few, the disbeliever would say that the one deserving of severe punishment is the one who follows Satan—that is, Muhammad and his people whom the jinn have beguiled into following them. And the one deserving of the great reward is us, who persisted in what our forefathers were upon.

So Allāh the Almighty said: "You are not like that." Rather, the doer of good is not like the one for whom evil has been made fair so that he deems it good. Rather, those for whom evil has been made fair are worse than those who commit evil while knowing it is evil. The ignorant person who knows his ignorance, and the evildoer who commits an evil deed, will return and repent. But the one who does not know persists in sins. The knowledgeable evildoer has a characteristic of blame for his evil deed and a characteristic of praise for his knowledge. But the evildoer who sees his evil deed as good has two characteristics of blame: for the evil deed and for the ignorance.

Then He clarified that all of this is by the Will of Allāh, saying:

{Then surely Allāh leaves astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills.}

This is because people, in their essence, are equal in reality, and in their evil deeds and good deeds. The bad and the good are distinguished from one another, so if some know them while others do not, it is not by their own independent effort; rather, it must be attributed to the Will of Allāh.

Then He consoled the Messenger of Allāh (peace and blessings be upon him) when he grieved over their persistence after he had brought every clear sign and overwhelming proof, saying:

{So let not your soul go toward them in grief.} As Allāh the Almighty also said: {Then perhaps you will kill yourself with grief over their footsteps [if they do not believe in this message].}

Then He clarified that if his grief is due to the misguidance that afflicts them, then Allāh is Knower of them and what they are doing. If He had willed their faith and good deeds, He would have prevented them from misguidance and turned them back from error. And if his grief is due to the harm they inflict upon him, then Allāh is Knower of their actions and will recompense them for what they do.

Then He returned to the explanation, saying:

{It is Allāh Who sends the winds so that they raise clouds, then We drive them to a dead land, and thereby We give life to the earth after its death. Thus is the Resurrection.}