BB00068: Tafsir-i-Suratu’l-Qadar II

Let it not grieve thy soul that, within every thousand months, there must needs be certain numbered Nights of Power; for how can one conceive those months which God hath made equal thereunto? Nay rather, they were the days of the dominion of the Bani Umayyih—may the curse of God rest upon them for ever and ever, and throughout all eternity—and in them there was no Night of Power; for the basis of the equivalence is the thousand months from which the Night of Power is excepted. This is not a station for overmuch pondering.

And the meaning of “the Spirit” in His saying: “The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by the leave of their Lord, with every command,” is the Qa’im; and by “the angels” are intended the Imams….

He—exalted be His word—hath said: “And He Who determineth and guideth.” And al-Sadiq hath said: “Neither compulsion nor complete delegation, but a matter between the two matters.” …For the decree (al-qadar) is the very realm of possibility, and it is vaster than that which lieth between the heaven of capacities and the earth of receptions; and all things walk therein, and yet perceive it not….

Thus, when He created His creation with choice, choice was inseparable from their very existence; for the question “Am I not your Lord?” is not addressed save unto one endowed with choice. And the question is itself the answer; and its Creator is One Who chooseth, Who is just. Therefore must He needs create them with choice. And when the Creator created His creation, He created them according to that which they are; for God, before their existence, knew their choices, and created them in the very form they would assume—this being the requital of their own description. And He is not unjust unto the servants, inasmuch as His knowledge of things before their existence is as His knowledge after their existence; and He it is Who rendereth unto every possessor of a right his right, within the station of their possibilities.