This is a slander against the Shaykh. Like the other Imams of guidance, he believes that Allah has decreed both good and evil and that nothing can occur in His realm unless He wills it. Evil comes upon a servant because of the servant’s own corrupt actions, yet it still proceeds from Allah in terms of decree and universal will. The Exalted said, “But as for him who is stingy, thinks himself self-sufficient, and denies the best reward, We shall ease him toward hardship” (Q 92:8–10). The Prophet ﷺ said, “Act, for everyone will find it easy to do that for which he was created.”
- On pages 199–200 he writes: “Ibn Taymiyyah holds that there is no necessary connection between command and will. Allah wills acts of obedience and commands them; He does not will the sins committed by the children of Adam and He forbids them. His willing of sins pertains only to His willing of their causes.” End quote.
I say: What he has attributed to the Shaykh is too general and needs clarification. His statement should be expressed thus: there is no necessary link between the prescriptive command (amr sharʿī) and the universal will (irāda kawnīyya). Allah may prescribe something without universally willing it—such as faith from a disbeliever—and He may universally will something without prescribing it—such as disbelief and other sins. This is because the divine will is of two kinds: a universal will (irāda kawnīyya) and a prescriptive will (irāda sharʿīyya); likewise the divine command is of two kinds: a universal command and a prescriptive command. Neither love nor approval necessarily accompanies the universal will and the universal command, whereas love and approval invariably accompany the prescriptive will and the prescriptive command. This distinction accords with the Shaykh’s method—the method of the early generations, grounded in the proofs of the Qur’an and the Sunnah. Thus Allah neither commands nor wills sins nor is pleased with them from the standpoint of the prescriptive will, yet He does will them and decree them on the universal level, for nothing occurs in His dominion except what He wills. The Exalted said, “And when We will to…”