and one likewise avoids saying, “O Lord of evil,” and the like—even though He is the Creator of everything and the Lord of everything—so that evil remains subsumed under the broader, unqualified attribution.
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A third explanation: evil does not rise up to You; only good words and righteous deeds ascend to You.
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A fourth: evil is not evil with respect to You, for You have created it with far-reaching wisdom; it is evil only in relation to created beings.
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A fifth, recorded by al-Khattābī: it is analogous to saying, “So-and-so belongs to the clan of such-and-such,” when he is counted among them and therefore ascribed to them.
The fourth interpretation is the one affirmed by Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him), as noted earlier. He first established that Allah, Exalted is He, is the Creator of both good and evil; then he clarified that evil is deemed evil only in relation to creatures, whereas with respect to the Creator it is not called evil, because He places every thing precisely where it belongs. This is what he meant by the phrase la fī khalqihi wa fiʿlihi (not in His creating or acting): the evil He creates or does is not described as “evil” in His regard, for He is All-Wise, setting things in their proper places, and Just, neither transgressing nor wronging anyone. From this it is understood that evil is not to be ascribed to Him; His creating and acting are pure good, even though some creatures may be harmed by them and therefore deem them evil in their own perspective.
If it is asked, “Shaykh al-Albānī’s words seem close to those of Ibn al-Qayyim (may Allah have mercy on him); why, then, object to al-Albānī?”—the answer is that there is a wide gulf between Ibn al-Qayyim’s formulation and the initial statement of al-Albānī. Al-Albānī categorically denied that evil could be among the acts of Allah, Most High, and this