On so many occasions in the Qur'an, God puts us on notice for something that, if we were people with any level of reflection and deliberation, we would already know innately and intuitively. God alerts us to the sheer capacity for ifsad—for corruption, spoliation, and exploitation—that human beings do, indeed, possess. In Surah al-Rum, God tells us that corruption has spread everywhere, and that the source of this corruption is human beings themselves through the exercise of their volition...