find a way into the text of the Holy Qur’ān, and that it shall be preserved in full purity. So far as the Holy Qur’ān is concerned, there is no mention in it of a lauḥ maḥfūẓ in which the decrees of God are written. God’s writing is not of the same nature as man’s writing; for man stands in need of pen, ink and writing material. This has elsewhere been explained in connection with the Divine attributes, where it has been shown that though speaking, seeing, hearing and other deeds are ascribed to God, yet the nature of these deeds is quite different from that of man’s deeds, for God does not stand in need of means for the doing of an act, while man does. The writing of God therefore does not stand in need of a tablet or ink or pen, and if a guarded tablet (lauḥ maḥfūẓ) is spoken of in certain ḥadīth, it stands only for the great and all-comprehensive knowledge of God, before which everything is as clear as written words on a tablet are before man.
A great misconception regarding the teachings of the Holy Qur’ān is that it ascribes to God the attribute of leading astray. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While al-Hādī, or the One Who guides, is one of the ninety-nine names of Allāh, as accepted by all Muslims, al-Mudzill, or the One Who leads astray, has never been recognized as such. If leading astray were an attribute of God, as guiding certainly is, the name al-Mudzill should have been included in the list of His names, as al-Hādī is. But the Holy Qur’ān, which repeatedly says that God’s are all the excellent names, could not ascribe to Him what it has plainly ascribed to the Devil, viz., the leading astray of men. This act is conclusive so far as the leading astray of men is concerned, but there are several other considerations which confirm it. The sinners’ own confession, as repeatedly mentioned in the Holy Qur’ān, is that their great leaders misled them, or that the Devil misled them. Not once do they put forward the excuse that it was God Himself Who misled them: “Until when they all follow one another into it (the fire), the last of them will say with regard to the first of them: Our Lord! these led us astray, so give them a double chastisement of the Fire” (7:38). “O woe is me! Would that I had not taken such a one for a friend! Certainly he led me astray from the Reminder after it had come to me (25:28, 29). “And