Transliteration:( Innaka laa tahdee man ahbabta wa laakinn Allaha yahdee mai yashaaa'; wa huwa a'lamu bil muhtadeen )
"Indeed, you cannot guide [144] whomever you like [145] on your own accord, but Allah guides whomever He wills. And He knows well who are the guided. [146]"
This verse was revealed regarding Abu Talib, the uncle of the Holy Prophet ﷺ. At the time of his death, the Prophet ﷺ said:
“O my uncle! Recite the Kalima so that I may testify to your faith on the Day of Judgment.”
Abu Talib replied with poetic verses expressing his deep conviction in Islam’s truth, yet did not utter the Kalima out of fear of public reproach. He died in that state. This verse was then revealed (Khazainul Irfaan).
This verse also served to comfort the Holy Prophet ﷺ, who was greatly pained by Abu Talib's passing without verbal acceptance of Islam.
Allah clarified that guidance is not tied to human love—even the Prophet ﷺ, whose love was universal as “a mercy to the worlds”, could not grant guidance to someone unless Allah willed it.
The meaning is: Even though you love someone dearly, true guidance only comes to those whose hearts are inclined toward the truth and for whom Allah has decreed it.
From this, we learn that acceptable worship and guidance are not personal possessions, but a gift and mercy from Allah—not worldly assets, but divinely granted treasures.
Allah knows best who deserves guidance—those in whose fate it has been written. Guidance is thus not based on lineage, association, or effort alone, but ultimately upon Allah’s will and wisdom.
56. Verily, you guide not whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He knows best those who are the guided. 57. And they say: “If we follow the guidance with you, we would be snatched away from our land.” Have We not established for them a secure sanctuary, to which are brought fruits of all kinds, a provision from Ourselves, but most of them know not.
Allah says to His Messenger : `O Muhammad:
(Verily, you guide not whom you like)’ meaning, `the matter does not rest with you; all that you have to do is convey the Message, and Allah will guide whom He wills, and His is the ultimate wisdom,’ as He says:
(Not upon you is their guidance, but Allah guides whom He wills.) (2:272)
(And most of mankind will not believe even if you desire it eagerly.) (12:103) This Ayah is even more specific than the following:
(Verily, you guide not whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He knows best those who are the guided.) meaning: Allah knows best who deserves to be guided and who deserves to be misguided. It was recorded in the Two Sahihs that this Ayah was revealed concerning Abu Talib, the paternal uncle of the Messenger of Allah . He used to protect the Prophet, support him and stand by him. He loved the Prophet dearly, but this love was a natural love, i.e., born of kinship, not a love that was born of the fact that he was the Messenger of Allah . When he was on his deathbed, the Messenger of Allah called him to Faith and to enter Islam, but the decree overtook him and he remained a follower of disbelief, and Allah’s is the complete wisdom. Az-Zuhri said: “Sa`id bin Al-Musayyib narrated to me that his father, Al-Musayyib bin Hazan Al-Makhzumi, may Allah be pleased with him, said: “When Abu Talib was dying, the Messenger of Allah came to him and found Abu Jahl bin Hisham and `Abdullah bin Abi Umayyah bin Al-Mughirah with him. The Messenger of Allah said:
(O my uncle, say La ilaha illallah, a word which I may use as evidence in your favor before Allah ﴿in the Hereafter﴾.) Abu Jahl bin Hisham and `Abdullah bin Abi Umayyah said: `O Abu Talib, will you leave the religion of `Abdul-Muttalib’ The Messenger of Allah kept urging him to say La ilaha illallah, and they kept saying, `Will you leave the religion of `Abdul-Muttalib’ — until, at the very end, he said that he was on the religion of `Abdul-Muttalib, and he refused to say La ilaha illallah. The Messenger of Allah said:
(By Allah, I shall certainly seek forgiveness for you unless I am told not to.) Then Allah revealed:
(It is not (proper) for the Prophet and those who believe to ask Allah’s forgiveness for the idolators, even though they be of kin) (9:113). And there was revealed concerning Abu Talib the Ayah,
(Verily, you guide not whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills.)” This was recorded (by Al-Bukhari and Muslim) from the Hadith of Az-Zuhri.
(And they say: “If we follow the guidance with you, we would be snatched away from our land.”) Allah tells us that this is the excuse which was given by some of the disbelievers for not following true guidance. They said to the Messenger of Allah :
(If we follow the guidance with you, we would be snatched away from our land.), meaning, `we are afraid that if we follow the message of guidance that you have brought, and go against the pagan Arab tribes around us, they will seek to do us harm and wage war against us, and they may snatch us away from wherever we may be.’ Allah said in response to them:
(Have We not established for them a secure sanctuary,) meaning, the excuse they give is a lie and is false, because Allah has put them in a secure city and a venerated sanctuary which has been safe from the time it was built — how could this sanctuary be safe for them when they believed in disbelief and Shirk, and how could it not be safe for them when they become Muslims and follow the truth
(to which are brought fruits of all kinds, ) means, all kinds of fruits from the surrounding regions, from At-Ta’if and elsewhere. Similarly, the people of Makkah engaged in trade and other goods also came to their city.
(a provision from Ourselves, but most of them know not.) – this is why they said what they said.
(28:56) (O Prophet), you cannot grant guidance to whom you please. It is Allah Who guides those whom He will.[79] He knows best who are amenable to guidance.
79. The context shows that the object of addressing this sentence to the Prophet (peace be upon him), after mentioning the affirmation of the faith by this Christians from Habash, was to put the disbelievers of Makkah to shame, as if to say. “O unfortunate people, what wretches you are! People from far off places are coming to benefit from the fountainhead of blessings that has been made available in your own city, but you are willfully depriving yourselves of it.” But the same thing has been said like this: “O Muhammad, you wish that your clansmen and your kinsfolk; and your near and dear ones should benefit from this life-giving nectar, but your willing alone cannot avail. To give guidance is in the power of Allah: He favors with it only those whom He finds inclined to accept guidance. If your kinsfolk lack this inclination, how can they be favored with this blessing?”
According to Bukhari and Muslim, this verse was sent down with regard to the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) uncle, Abu Talib. When he was about to breathe his last, the Prophet (peace be upon him) tried his utmost that he should affirm faith in La ilaha illallah, so that he might die as a Muslim, but he preferred to die on the creed of Abdul Muttalib; that is why Allah said: “You cannot give guidance to whom you please.” But this is a well known method of the traditionalists and commentators that when they find that a particular verse applies to an event of the Prophet’s time, they regard it as the occasion of the verse’s revelation. Therefore, it cannot be necessarily concluded from this and the other similar traditions that have been related in Tirmidhi, Musnad Ahmad, etc. on the authority of Abu Hurairah, Ibn Abbas, Ibn Umar, etc. that this verse of Surah Al-Qasas was revealed on the occasion of Abu Talib’s death. This only shows that the truth of its meaning became most evident only on that occasion. Though the Prophet (peace be upon him) sincerely wished that every man should be blessed with guidance, the person whose dying on disbelief could cause him the greatest anguish and of whose guidance he was most desirous on account of personal bonds of love and affection, was Abu Talib. But when he was helpless in affording guidance even to him, it became evident that it did not lie in the power of the Prophet to give guidance to one or withhold it from another, but it lay wholly in the power of Allah. And Allah bestows this favor on whomever He wills not on account of a family or tribal relationship, but on the basis of one’s sincerity, capability and inclination of the heart.
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