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Does verse 13 of Surat As-Sajdah determine that God is the one who decides whether a person is an unbeliever or a believer, and not the self?

1 min readAlso available in العربية

A Muslim must believe that Allah Almighty does whatever He wills and judges without any reviser of His judgment. He is just and does not wrong anyone. His saying, the Most High: {And if We had willed, We could have given every soul its guidance} means that if He had willed, He would have guided all people. However, His decree and destiny were to fill Hell with jinn and humans, because He knew they would choose misguidance. So, Allah guides whom He wills and misguides whom He wills, but He does not hold a servant accountable except for their deeds and choices, after having given them intellect and perception to choose between good and evil. Allah's prior knowledge of a person's destiny does not negate their choice; rather, a person is free to choose their actions and deserves reward or punishment based on that.

Summarized from the full answer at Ftawy · reviewed Sep 2, 2026

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