from al-Zubaydī, Sufyān al-Thawrī, ʿAbd al-Rahmān ibn Mahdī, and others concerning the use of the term “compulsion.”
Al-Awzāʿī, Ahmad, and others like them said:
“Whoever says that He compels has erred, and whoever says that He does not compel has erred. Rather, one should say that Allah guides whom He wills and leads astray whom He wills, and use similar expressions.”
They also said that the term “compulsion” has no basis in the Book or the Sunnah. What occurs in the Sunnah is the term jabl (endowing with an innate disposition), not jabr (compulsion), for the following report is authentic:
“The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said to al-Ashajj of ʿAbd al-Qays: ‘You possess two traits that Allah loves: forbearance and deliberation.’
He asked: ‘Are these two traits that I have cultivated, or two traits with which I was created?’
He replied: ‘Rather, they are two traits with which you were created.’
He said: ‘Praise be to Allah, who created me with two traits that Allah loves.’”
They further explained that the term “compulsion” admits more than one meaning. When used without qualification in ordinary speech, it is understood to mean forcing someone to act against his will. Thus, jurists discuss whether a father may or may not compel his daughter to marry. They unanimously agree that no one may compel a sane adult woman who is no longer a virgin to marry, while the case of an adult virgin is a well-known point of disagreement. They also say that the ruler compels a debtor to repay his debt, and use similar expressions. These expressions mean forcing someone to act against his will.
It is like the term “coercion”: either someone makes a person perform an act that he dislikes and abhors, so that he does it for fear of that person’s threat, or something is done to him without any action on his own part.
It is well known that when Allah, glorified and exalted be He, instills in a servant’s heart the desire to perform an act and love for it, so that he performs it—as He, exalted be He, says:
“But Allah has endeared faith to you and made it pleasing in your hearts, and has made disbelief, defiance, and disobedience hateful to you.” [al-Hujurāt: 7]
—this does not constitute compulsion