things. Moreover, He—glorified and exalted be He—has prescribed mercy for Himself and has not prescribed wrath for Himself; His mercy and knowledge have embraced every single thing, whereas His wrath and retribution have not. Hence mercy, together with all that springs from it—its requisites and its effects—prevails over wrath and everything that issues from it and its consequences. The existence of what comes through mercy is therefore dearer to Him than the existence of what follows from the necessities of wrath. For this reason mercy is dearer to Him than punishment, and pardon dearer to Him than vengeance. In short, the presence of what He loves is dearer to Him than the absence of what He dislikes—especially when avoiding what He dislikes would also entail losing the beloved outcomes that accompany it, for He detests the loss of those beloved corollaries just as He detests the occurrence of the disliked principal itself.

Eighteenth approach: The traces left by what He dislikes—namely the prohibitions—disappear far more quickly by means of what He loves than the traces of what He loves disappear because of what He dislikes. The effects of His displeasure fade swiftly. He may erase them through His pardon and forbearance; they vanish through repentance, seeking forgiveness, righteous deeds, calamities that expiate sins, intercession, for “good deeds wipe away bad deeds.” Even if a servant’s sins were to reach the clouds of the sky and then he sought forgiveness, He would forgive him; and if that servant were to come to Him with sins nearly filling the earth yet meet Him without associating anything with Him, He would meet him with an equal measure of forgiveness. He, exalted is He, forgives sins—no matter how great—and it does not burden Him; He nullifies them and their effects for the price of the slightest effort on the servant’s part: sincere repentance and remorse for what he has done. All of this is only because of the presence of what He loves—namely the servant’s repentance, obedience, and tawḥīd (pure monotheism)—which shows that the presence of these matters is more beloved and pleasing to Him.

Nineteenth approach, which further clarifies the point: He, exalted be He, has decreed the very prohibitions He detests because of the beneficial outcomes He loves and rejoices over that arise from them in the form of commanded acts. Indeed, He rejoices at His servant’s repentance more than the finder who had lost his mount and then recovered it, more than the barren woman who gives birth, and more than the parched traveler who reaches water. The Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—presented a parable to illustrate His joy at the servant’s repentance