al-Qaṣaṣ 28:56 commentary

28/56

إِنَّكَ لَا تَهْدِى مَنْ أَحْبَبْتَ وَلَٰكِنَّ ٱللَّهَ يَهْدِى مَن يَشَآءُ

"You cannot guide whom you love; but God guides whom He wills."

The sharpest expression of the limit

This limit has been treated in many places in this series, and each sūra used a different word:

Place	Expression	What it limits
al-Aḥqāf 46/35	Balāgh	The task — it is delivery
al-Zumar 39/41	Wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-wakīl	Responsibility
Qāf 50/45	Wa mā anta ʿalayhim bi-jabbār	The authority to compel
Fāṭir 35/8	Fa-lā tadhhab nafsuka ʿalayhim ḥasarāt	Grief
Luqmān 31/23	Fa-lā yaḥzunka kufruh	Grief
al-Qaṣaṣ 28/56	Lā tahdī man aḥbabta	Love — the closest bond

Six sūras, six distinct words. And what is worth recording in al-Qaṣaṣ: the limit is set upon love. Man aḥbabta — "the one you love."

I record this as my own reading, and its ground is the choice of the verb: in the other verses it was an authority or a feeling that was being limited; here it is said that even the strongest bond does not produce the result. And this agrees with the general line of the sūra: the mother had cast her child into the water, and what brought about his return was not her love but the order of causes.