Choice, Not Delegation

The sentence “either you punish them, or you adopt a good way with them” is not of the kind of delegation (tafwīḍ); rather, it is of the kind of istikhbār within an alternative obligation; like the command of the Most Holy Divine Essence to the Prophet (s.a.w.) concerning prisoners of war, that he must, as an alternative obligation, apply one of these options and courses: enslavement, ransom, release, or killing: “So when you meet those who disbelieve, strike their necks; until, when you have subdued them, bind them firmly; then either grace afterwards or ransom”(84) – not that He delegated the matter to him so that he might act on his own opinion; like the alternative obligation among the options of expiation, where God the Glorified has made one of these obligatory: freeing a slave, fasting sixty days, or feeding sixty poor people; and also like the obligation of the optional expiation for breaking a covenant.(85)

On this basis, choice means an obligation with several specified options, not the delegation of the matter. In the story of Dhū al-Qarnayn, God did not delegate the matter to him so that he might act on his own opinion; rather, it is a divine command that he apply one of these two things to that people: either punish them, or treat them with goodness.