Monday, 11 May 2026 (24 Dhuʻl-Qiʻdah 1447 AH)
Question: Allah, exalted is He, said, relating [from Nūḥ]: “And my advice will not benefit you – although I wished to advise you – if Allah should intend to put you in error.” [Hud:34] The outward sense of this verse supports the statement of the Jabrīyyah [those who affirm compulsion] that Allah wills and intends the acts of disobedience of the servants and that He is the One who does them. So how do you interpret this verse?
Answer – and Allah is the One who grants success: al-Ghayy (error, going astray) may be used in the language to mean punishment and chastisement. Upon this is His saying, exalted is He: “so they are going to meet evil.” [Maryam:59] And the saying of the poet:
“Whoever encounters good, people will praise his affair,
and whoever goes astray will not lack a blamer to blame his going astray.”
On this basis, the meaning of “intends to put you in error (yurīdu an yughwiyakum)” is: “intends to punish you and chastise you.” According to this interpretation, there is nothing in the verse that supports the words of the Jabrīyyah.
The proof that what we have mentioned of this interpretation is what is meant, and that it is the interpretation which must be adopted, is the context of the verse. For before it is His saying, exalted is He: “They said, ‘O Noah, you have disputed with us and been frequent in disputation with us. So bring us what you threaten us with, if you should be of the truthful.’ He said, ‘Allah will only bring it to you if He wills, and you will not cause Him failure.’ And my advice will not benefit you…” [Hud:32–34] From the context of the verse as we have mentioned, (it is clear that) the people had hastened the punishment of Allah, exalted is He. So Nūḥ informed (them) that his advice would not benefit the one whom Allah wills to send down punishment and chastisement upon.
Source: Min Thimār al-ʿIlm wa al-Ḥikmah vol.3