And God's is the direction of the way: that is, adherence to the straight way and guidance to it of those who are His folk falls on Him, as he [Hūd] said surely my Lord is on a straight path [Q. 11:56]. In other words, all who are on this path, which is the path of the affirmation of Oneness, are undoubtedly His folk, exalted be He, since that is His path, the one to which He adheres; and some of these, paths, are deviant, in other words, some paths, which are those separate paths, to the exclusion of the path of the affirmation of Oneness, are deviant, swerving from the truth and inevitably leading to falsehood: that is the path of error, whichever one it may be. He did not will that all be guided to the straight path because that would contradict the [divine] wisdom;
