It has already been established that the receiver has the effect in determining particulars, rather than the giver. He, exalted is He, gives good, and the receiver differentiates it into what is adjudged of it as good and evil. Its goodness is its being kept upon the original basis.
The ruling of the original basis belongs to Him. Thus he said, ‘All good is in Your hands.’ What is adjudged of it as evil comes from the receiver. This is his saying, ‘Evil does not belong to You.’
If you say: ‘This being created to receive evil is possible. Why, then, did He not create it to receive good, since all comes from Him?’
We say: we have already stated and explained that knowledge follows what is known. The possible thing exists only according to the state it possessed in its nonexistence, in fixity and change, whatever it may be.
The Real knew only what the known thing was upon in its state of nonexistence, such that, when it appeared in existence, it would possess that state. Nothing has come upon the known thing with which it was not characterized in its nonexistence, and knowledge therefore has no effect upon it.
We said that determination is timing only because it derives from measure: ﴿We send it down only in a known measure﴾ [al-Ḥijr 15:21], ﴿We created every thing in a measure﴾ [al-Qamar 54:49]. Know this. ﴿God speaks the truth, and He guides the way﴾ [al-Aḥzāb 33:4].
Chapter Four Hundred and Fourteen: On Knowing the Mutual Encounter ‘You See Only through a Veil’
