Nobody Eats the Provision of Anybody Else

That means nobody actually eats the provision of anybody else, because everybody's provision is written for them. So when somebody comes to a person's house and eats something, that was actually written for the guest, and this should be really clear. We should not withhold when somebody comes to our house; we should actually be open, and just lay it all out. In fact, for ourselves, we have to be very careful; but when it comes to others, in terms of generosity and hospitality, it is permissible to actually go and provide for them very good things. It is an encouragement in that sense. The guests are eating their own food, basically; it is just written to be in the host's house. And nobody dies anybody else's death; each dies his own death.

The Muʿtazilah have a problem with this. They say that anything ḥarām and unlawful cannot be considered rizq. Rizq has to be ḥalāl; only the lawful substances are rizq, and other things do not qualify — ḥarām food, for example. That is a problem, because there are some people who have only eaten ḥarām all their lives, either purchased with ḥarām wealth or actually ḥarām; or some animals who have always eaten ḥarām. Does that mean that Allah has not provided for them? Allah said He is the one who provides; Allah is the one who provides. So these are, again, just some of those intellectual exercises that would lead to some of these conclusions, which were really useless in a sense. The ʿulamāʾ believe that even ḥarām can be rizq: it is just what a person is sustained by. Allah provides that.

They also said that the maqtūl, the one who is killed by someone else, has his life shortened; he does not die his own death; somebody else has deprived him. In the worldly sense, the murderer is going to be held responsible. But on the other hand, when it comes to the person who has been killed, in an accident or whatever it may be, that person has died his death; that is what was written for him. It is just that the other person was used for it.