Allāh said:

وَإِنَّهُ لَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةٌ لِّلْمُؤْمِنِينَ
“And indeed, it is guidance and mercy for the believers.”
[Al-Naml, 27:77]

ذَٰلِكَ الْكِتَابُ لَا رَيْبَ ۛ فِيهِ ۛ هُدًى لِّلْمُتَّقِينَ
“(This is) that Book (containing knowledge of previous scriptures) about which there is no doubt (that it is from Allāh)—it contains guidance for the pious (who benefit from its admonitions and abide by its teachings).”
[Al-Baqarah, 2:2]

كَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَعْقِلُونَ
“Thus do We detail the verses for a people who use reason.”
[Al-Rūm, 30:28]

كَذَٰلِكَ نُفَصِّلُ الْآيَاتِ لِقَوْمٍ يَتَفَكَّرُونَ
“Thus do We explain in detail the signs for a people who give thought.”
[Yūnus, 10:24]

Imām ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Nāṣir al-Saʿdī (d. 1376 AH) comments:

The specifications for His [Allah’s] guidance are mentioned in several verses. He specifies His guidance as applying only to the believers, the pious, people who use reason, people who give thought, and those who have true intentions. This is a clarification from Him—the Most High—of the prerequisite for the attainment of His guidance which is that it must come upon a place of acceptance and implementation. His guidance is only attained by one who possesses the intellectual capacity, the thought and the contemplation required.

As for the opposer who chooses to refrain from deep thought and contemplation of His verses, he will never benefit from them. [The same can be said] for the one who has no intention to reach the truth, nor has he set out in search of righteousness. Rather, he harbours corrupt intentions to where he has become accustomed to opposing and resisting [the truth]. Such a person shall have no share of guidance.

Thus, the first type is robbed of guidance due to the lack of a prerequisite (i.e. introspection), and the second due to the presence of that which prevents it (i.e. aloofness).

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As for the one who meets the truth, gives thought to its meanings, and contemplates it with a befitting understanding and intention while being devoid of false desires, such a person will be guided to the object of his search. He will have fulfilled the most exalted and desirable of goals.

Source: Fawāʾid Qurʾāniyyah: 7-8
Translated by: Riyāḍ al-Kanadī