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As in verse {178} above - and in many other places in the Qur'an - the expression "he whom God lets [or "causes to"] go astray" indicates the natural law instituted by God (sunnat Allah), whereby a wilful neglect of one's inborn, cognitive faculties unavoidably results in the loss of all ethical orientation: that is, not an act of "predestination" but a result of one's own choice. See also surah {2}, note [7], and surah {14}, note [4].
Cf. ii. 15. If Allah's light is removed, the best of them can only wander hither and thither, like blind men, in distraction.