Commentary on the verse “Who made everything He has created good” [as-Sajdah 32:7]
Question

                I have a question that I have been thinking about for a while.

What does Allah mean in verse 32:7? What does "Ahsana" mean? Does it mean that Allah made every creation good or perfect? If every creation of Allah is perfect, then what about human beings who are imperfect? Plus, if the creation is perfect, it means that it cant get better, but Allah is Almighty and can make the creation better and better and more beautiful if He wills? If all creations are good, then what about evil actions of human beings (which are also created by Allah)? Im just looking for clarity and answers, may Allah reward you.
Praise be to Allah.
	Firstly:

	Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the 
	meaning):

	“That is He, the All-Knower of 
	the unseen and the seen, the All-Mighty, the Most Merciful. 
Who made 
	everything He has created good, and He began the creation of man from clay”

	[as-Sajdah 32:6-7].

	What is meant by making everything good here is making it 
	perfect and making it properly; it does not refer to beauty of form. So this 
	verse is like the verse in which Allah, may He be exalted, says 
	(interpretation of the meaning):

	“The Work of Allah, Who perfected all things”

	[an-Naml 27:88].

	Some of the scholars are of the view that what is referred to 
	by making everything good, in this verse, is beauty of form. Therefore the 
	verse applies specifically to those created things that Allah, may He be 
	exalted, has made beautiful.

	Al-Qurtubi (may Allah have mercy on him) said:

	“Who made everything He has 
	created good” means that He 
	made it with precision and perfectly, so He made it properly in order to 
	fulfil the purpose for which it is intended.

	Ibn ‘Abbaas and ‘Ikrimah also referred to this meaning when 
	they said: A monkey’s rear end is not beautiful, but it is made well and 
	made perfectly.

	Ibn Abi Najeeh narrated that Mujaahid said: “Who 
	made everything He has created good” 
	means: He made it with precision.

	This is like the verse in which Allah, may He be blessed and 
	exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Our Lord 
	is He Who gave to each thing its form and nature, then guided it aright”
[Ta-Ha 
	20:50].

	That is, He did not create man in the form of an animal, and 
	He did not create animals in the form of man.

	It was said that this is general in wording but specific in 
	meaning, and what is meant is that He is the One Who made good everything 
	that He created. End quote.

	Tafseer al-Qurtubi 
	(14/90).

	The verse quoted in the question is like the verse in which 
	Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the meaning):

	“and [Allah] has given you shape 
	and made your shapes good (looking)”

	[Ghaafir 40:64].

	There are two views among the commentators concerning this 
	verse.

	An-Nasafi said in his Tafseer (3/436):

	“and [Allah] has given you 
	shape and made your shapes good (looking)” 
	that is, He has made you the most beautiful and good-looking of animals, on 
	the basis of the fact that man does not wish for his image to be like that 
	of any other creature. Part of his good image is that he was created to 
	stand upright, not facing downwards, and whoever is regarded as ugly, 
	deformed and bad-looking does not look so bad in reality, but beauty is of 
	varying degrees, so the one who is regarded as ugly is less beautiful than 
	the one who is of a higher level of beauty, therefore he is not regarded as 
	being beautiful, but he is still within the range of beauty. Wise people say 
	that there are two things that have no limit: beauty and eloquence. End 
	quote.

	See: Tafseer ar-Raazi (15/365); Tafseer an-Neesaboori 
	(7/196).

	Based on that, what is meant by the words, “Who 
	made everything He has created good” 
	is: He made it perfect, with precision. This does not contradict the fact 
	that some creatures are ugly or distorted.

	It may be that what is meant here is beauty of outward form.

	This is not contradicted by the fact that there are some 
	distorted or ugly creatures, because they are still within the range of what 
	is made good or well-made, and being made good and being beautiful may be of 
	various levels. So these creatures are more beautiful than those that are 
	less than them in terms of beauty, but the beauty of the latter is not 
	apparent, because we are comparing it with something more beautiful than it. 
	If we were to compare it with something that is less beautiful, then its 
	beauty would become apparent.

	Secondly:

	With regard to the idea that the images of any created being 
	could be better than it is now, then yes indeed, Allah, may He be exalted, 
	has the power to do all things. He has created the angels in the best, most 
	perfect and most beautiful of forms, so we cannot ask: Why didn’t Allah 
	create all creatures in the form of angels? Because this is contrary to the 
	wisdom of Allah, may He be exalted. Allah, may He be exalted, has created 
	every type of creature for a specific reason and to fulfil a specific 
	purpose, according to His will. Therefore He created every creature in the 
	form that would fulfil that wisdom and purpose, and He created it well and 
	made it good. Therefore there is no way that any creature could have been 
	created better or more beautiful than that.

	Even diseases, disasters and the evil that men or other 
	creatures do – Allah created all of that and He did it well and with 
	precision.

	Allah created sickness in order to test the sick person: will 
	he bear it with patience and acceptance, or not?

	And He created it in order to test the one who is healthy and 
	sound: will he show gratitude for the blessing that Allah has bestowed upon 
	him, or not?

	Allah, may He be exalted, says (interpretation of the 
	meaning):

	“And We have made some of you as 
	a trial for others: will you have patience? And your Lord is Ever All-Seer 
	(of everything)”

	[al-Furqaan 25:20].

	So He tests the rich by means of the poor and the poor by 
	means of the rich; He tests the weak by means of the strong and the strong 
	by means of the weak; He tests the leaders by means of the followers and the 
	followers by means of the leaders; He tests the master by means of the slave 
	and the slave by means of the master; He tests a man by means of his wife 
	and his wife by means of him; He tests men by means of women and women by 
	means of men; He tests the believers by means of the disbelievers and the 
	disbelievers by means of the believers.

	Ighaathat al-Lahfaan 
	(2/161).

	As-Sa‘di (may Allah have mercy on him) said in his commentary 
	on the verse:

	“Fir‘awn (Pharaoh) said: ‘Who then, O Moosa (Moses), is the 
	Lord of you two?’ 

	 [Moosa (Moses)] said: ‘Our Lord is He Who gave to each thing 
	its form and nature, then guided it aright’”

	[Ta-Ha 20:49-50]:
	

	that is, our Lord is the One Who created all things, and gave 
	each created thing its form and nature that befits it and is indicative of 
	His perfect artistry in His creation, such as the size of its body, whether 
	it is great or small or in between, and all its other attributes.

	Then He guided every created being to the purpose for which 
	He created it. This guidance in general terms can be seen in all created 
	things; hence you see every creature striving for the purpose for which it 
	was created of attaining benefits and warding off harm, to the extent that 
	Allah, may He be exalted, has even given animals sufficient intelligence to 
	be able to achieve that.
This is like 
	the verse in which Allah, may He be exalted, says: “Who made everything 
	He has created good” [as-Sajdah 32:7]. The One Who has created all 
	things, and created them well, such that no one with any reason could think 
	that there could be anything better than them in design, and He guided them 
	to that which is in their best interests, is indeed the true Lord. Denying 
	Him is denying the greatest of all that exists; in fact it is arrogance and 
	a blatant lie. End quote.
Tafseer 
	as-Sa ‘di (p. 507).

	Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyah (may Allah have mercy on him) 
	said: 

	So the created being, on the basis of the purpose for which 
	it was created, is good and proper, even if it has some evil aspects, 
	because the evil is secondary and partial, and it is not pure evil; rather 
	the evil that is intended for a good purpose, that outweighs the evil, is 
	something good on the part of the Doer, the Most Wise, even though it is bad 
	on the part of the one who did it.

	With regard to the one who thinks that the intended purpose 
	that is based on wisdom could be achieved if the bad thing was not there, he 
	only said that because he does not know the real nature of things and how 
	things are interconnected. For when the Creator creates a thing, He must 
	inevitably create the requirements thereof, because for something to exist 
	or be created without its requirements is not possible. End quote

	Majmoo‘ al-Fataawa 
	(8/512).

	He also said:

	Although Allah, may He be exalted, is the Creator of all 
	things, He is also the One Who created good and evil, because of His divine 
	wisdom on the basis of which everything He does is good and proper, as He 
	says (interpretation of the meaning):
“Who made 
	everything He has created good, and He began the creation of man from clay”

	[as-Sajdah 32:6-7]

	“The Work of Allah, Who perfected all things”

	[an-Naml 27:88].

	Hence evil on its own cannot be attributed to Him; rather it 
	is either to be implied in general terms or it is to be attributed to its 
	cause, or it is to be referred to in the passive. End quote.

	Minhaaj as-Sunnah an-Nabawiyyah 
	(3/142)

	For more information, please see the answer to question no.
	160890

	And Allah knows best.