Counsel
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE[42:8]
Now had God so willed, He could surely have made them all one single community: none the less, He admits unto His grace him that wills [to be admitted] – whereas the evildoers shall have none to protect them and none to succour them [on Judgment Day].

---

* v.8 : The implication being, “but He has not willed it”: see second paragraph of 5:48 and the corresponding notes 66 and 67; 16:93 and note 116; also note 29 on 10:19.
* Or: “He admits whomever He wills unto His grace” – similar to the double meaning inherent in the oft-recurring phrase, Allāhu yahdī man yashā’u wa-yudillu man yashā’u, which can be understood either as “God guides whomever He wills and lets go astray whomever He wills,” or, alternatively, as “God guides him that wills [to be guided] and lets go astray him that wills [to go astray].” See, in particular, Zamakhsharī’s elaborate comment on this problem quoted in note 4 on the second half of 14:4.