Comment at Q 91 : 7-10

If God “inspires” the soul in both directions, does that mean God also causes corruption? And if so, how can humanity be responsible for sin, or for the purification of its soul?

This tension has led to fierce debates in Islamic theology for centuries.

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2. Critical reflection

From an Islam critical perspective one can say:

1. Ambiguity:
   The text remains ambiguous about the source of evil. The phrase “He inspired her wickedness” can be read as:

   1. “He showed her what depravity is” (moral consciousness),

   2. or “He gave her the tendency to depravity” (creative action).
      Arabic grammar allows for both readings.

2. Contradictory implication:
   If God is the source of both good and evil, and if everything is predestined, then God is the source of moral purification and depravity. And “moral purification” doesn’t count as a human achievement. The reason for praise or punishment would also become unclear.

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How does Allah react when you choose the so-called ‘depravity’:

Surah 19:83 says : Have you not seen how We have sent the devils upon those who disbelieved, to incite them to mischief continually

So on the one hand, man seems to be able to choose freely between belief and disbelief (as 91:8–10 says), but elsewhere God himself seems the disbelievers to deceive 19:83, to seal the heart 2:7 to blind, 6:110 or even actively steer in the wrong direction 6:93.

A. Soera 91:8–10

• Man is naturally born with both tendencies: depravity and godliness.

• He chooses which ones him purifies or corrupts.

• That implies a free, fair moral ordeal .

B. Soera 19:83

“Do you not see that We have sent the devils upon those who disbelieved, to entice them continually to do evil?”

• Here it is not man who chooses, but God who sends the devils to incite the unbelievers to evil.

• And in other verses Allah explicitly says that He “seals up the hearts of the disbelievers” ( khatama Allāhu ʿalā qulūbihim , 2:7), or “hardens” ( yudhillu man yashā’ wa yahdī man yashā’ , 16:93) — “He guides whom He wills and He sends astray whom He wills.”

So there appears to be a pattern: God creates the possibility of good and evil (91:8–10), but if one chooses disbelief [evil] then Allah takes revenge (19:83 and elsewhere).

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Islam critically viewed

From a rational or ethical critique it is a fundamental inconsistency :

1. People are supposedly given a fair trial (free choice).
   → 91:8–10 says: “He gave to the soul its depravity and its godliness” → freedom of choice.

2. But if one is not ready to believe, then Allah sends the devils to urge the disbelievers to persist in their evil deeds. → 19:83, 2:7, 6:110, 16:93, 45:23 etc.

3. Conclusion: Instead of Allah trying to bring disbelievers back to faith, He sends Satans to tempt them even deeper into disbelief.

This paradox has never really been resolved in the Islamic tradition; people try to “balance” it theologically by saying:

“God lets those who deserve it go astray.” 

But even that remains circular reasoning: who decides who ‘deserves’ it? God himself.

It’s a legitimate point of criticism, and it touches on a deep-seated moral problem in Qur’anic logic: why would a just and merciful God actively choose to allow unbelievers to descend further into evil, rather than lead them back to truth and salvation?

Let’s put that idea in context, because it is theologically and ethically loaded.

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1. What the Quran says

There are several passages that, like 19:83, show the same pattern:

19:83
“Do you not see that We have sent the devils against those who disbelieved, to entice them continually to do evil?”

2:7
“Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing; over their eyes is a covering; for them is an awful punishment.”

6:110
“We turn their hearts and their eyes as they disbelieved the first time, and We leave them wandering blindly in their transgressions.”

16:93
“If Allah so willed, He could have made you into one community, but He leaves astray whom He wills and guides whom He wills.”

45:23
“Have you considered him who makes his own desires his god, and Allah has sent him astray knowingly…”

So the picture is consistent : some are not only not helped, but are even pushed further into unbelief — by satanic influence, by a divine sealing of the heart, or by “divine error.”

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2. Ethical problem.

If we take the text at its literal meaning , a paradox indeed arises that you summarize well:

God tests people (91:8–10),
but as soon as someone fails that test,
He intervenes by sending devils to sink him even further—
and then punishes him for that result.

This makes the test unfair and creates a moral problem:

• Why wouldn’t an all-powerful, all-merciful God try to save ?

• Why would He place additional obstacles (devils, sealing of the heart)
  instead of helping us to repent?

Even within Islamic sources, some scholars felt this discomfort. For example,
Al-Razi (a rational theologian) said:

“If God allows people to err after they have erred, that is a second deception on top of the first.”
He then tries to reduce it to a “natural law of the soul”: whoever chooses evil, closes himself off — but that remains an interpretive twist, not the textual meaning.

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3. Islam-critical analysis

From a rational-ethical perspective, one could say:

1. God plays a partisan game:
   He sends prophets to save some,
   but sends devils to further corrupt others.

2. The “test” is not fair:
   If God seals someone’s heart or sends devils,
   then logically that person cannot come to faith anymore.

3. Self-defeating mercy:
   The Quran calls Allah “the Most Merciful,”
   but His actions toward unbelievers are more of a preventative hardening—
   rather than forgiveness.

4. Theological circular reasoning:

   • Disbelievers disbelieve because Allah has left them astray.

   • Allah leads them astray because they disbelieve.
     → A closed circle without moral logic.

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4. Summary

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Allah’s character