it is attributed only to God. If it is attributed to other than God, that comes from the recipient of the blessing, rather than from the blessing itself. The recipient is blameworthy to the extent that he attributes bounties to other than God.
When God's Messenger, God bless him and grant him peace, recited Sūrat al-Raḥmān to the jinn—a surah encompassing all that God has created, this world and the Hereafter, above and below—“whenever he said in a verse of it, ‘Which of your Lord's bounties do you two deny?’ the jinn said, ‘We deny none of Your bounties, our Lord.’” God's Messenger, God bless him and grant him peace, praised them to his Companions for listening well when he recited it to them and they said nothing of this kind. Their silence did not arise from ignorance that bounties come from God, nor were the jinn more knowledgeable than they about the attribution of bounties to God. Rather, the jinn fulfilled the perfection of the outward station when they said, “We deny none of Your bounties, our Lord,” for the situation required this. The human Companions did not say this when he recited it to them because they were occupied with acquiring knowledge they did not possess, which God's Messenger, God bless him and grant him peace, would bring. Their eagerness to fill the time in which they might say what the jinn said with the Prophet's imparting knowledge from which they could benefit occupied them. They were more eager than the jinn to acquire knowledge, while the jinn were more firmly established than the humans in fulfilling the courtesy of the answer this situation required. God's Messenger therefore praised them,
Notes
Translator’s note TN3721-1: The contrast concerns two excellences: the jinn's answering in the outward form required by the situation, and the human Companions' silence in eagerness to receive further knowledge. The author expressly denies that their silence meant ignorance of the divine source of blessings.
