What Is the Difference Between Divine Grace and Divine Blessing?

“Tawfīq” means that a servant’s action accords with and conforms to the divine command. This accord is regarded as a special blessing from among God’s blessings. In fact, tawfīq is a particular blessing, whereas blessing is a general term; the two stand in a relation of absolute generality and particularity. Thus every instance of tawfīq is a divine blessing.

Tawfīq is a blessing that prepares the way for receiving other special divine blessings. Or, tawfīq is a particular blessing that broadens the scope of a person’s access to God’s special blessings. Tawfīq may be considered the gateway to blessings. It is therefore inseparable from blessing.

التوفیق أول النعمه.
ʿUyūn al-ḥikam wa-l-mawāʿiẓ (al-Laythī), p. 40

لا نعمه أفضل [أجل‏] من التوفیق‏
Taṣnīf gharar al-ḥikam wa-durar al-kalim, p. 203

التوفیق فی الشکر نعمه حادثه یجب الشکر علیها
Miṣbāḥ al-sharīʿa, p. 25

و ما أنعم الله تعالى على العبد بمثل ما أنعم به من التوفیق‏
Miṣbāḥ al-sharīʿa, p. 150

… I asked, “What is meant by His words, Mighty and Glorious is He, ‘و ما توفیقی إلا بالله’ [My success is only through God], and by His words, Mighty and Glorious is He, ‘إن ینصرکم الله فلا غالب لکم و إن یخذلکم فمن ذا الذی ینصرکم من بعده’ [If God helps you, none can overcome you; but if He forsakes you, who is there who can help you thereafter?]?”

He replied, “When a servant performs the act of obedience that God, Mighty and Glorious is He, has commanded, his action accords with God’s command, and he is called successful. When a servant intends to commit an act of disobedience, but God, Blessed and Exalted is He, intervenes between him and that sin, so that he abandons it, his leaving it behind is through God’s enabling grace. But if he is left alone with the sin, and God does not intervene to keep him from it, until he commits it, then God has forsaken him, neither helping nor granting him success.”
Maʿānī al-akhbār, text, p. 21

The narrator relates: I said to Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq, peace be upon him, “What is meant by ‘tawfīq’ in the Book of God, Mighty and Glorious is He: ‘و ما توفیقی إلا بالله’ [My success is only through God] (that is, I have no success in setting things right or attaining the abode of reward and righteousness except through God’s guidance—Hūd: 88)? And what is meant by ‘forsaking’ in the noble verse, ‘إن ینصرکم الله فلا غالب لکم و إن یخذلکم فمن ذا الذی ینصرکم من بعده’ [If God helps you—as at the Battle of Badr—none can overcome you; but if He leaves you to yourselves—as at the Battle of Uḥud—who then can help you thereafter?] (Āl ʿImrān: 16)?”

He replied, “Whenever a servant performs a righteous deed that God has commanded him to do, his action is in keeping with and conforms to God’s command, and he is called a successful servant. Whenever he intends to commit a sin, the Lord creates an obstacle between the servant and that act of disobedience, with the result that he does not commit it; his refraining from that sin has thus been made possible through the help and support of God, Exalted is He. But if He leaves him alone with the sin, creates no barrier, and the servant commits it, God, Mighty and Glorious is He, has not helped him or granted him success; He has therefore left him helpless and at a loss.”
Maʿānī al-akhbār, translated by Muḥammadī, vol. 1, p. 46