in this sense. Only Allah Most High can bring this about, for He alone makes the contented person contented, the loving person loving, and the averse person averse.

“Compulsion” may also mean simply making the servant act, or creating him with these attributes, as in His words, exalted be He:

“Indeed, mankind was created anxious: when evil touches him, impatient, and when good touches him, withholding.” [al-Ma‘ārij: 19–20]

“Compulsion,” understood in this sense, is true. An example is Muhammad ibn Ka‘b al-Qurazī’s explanation of His name al-Jabbār (the Compeller): “He is the One who compels His servants to what He wills.”

Another example is the well-known report from ‘Alī, may Allah be pleased with him, concerning invoking blessings upon the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace:

“O Allah, who spreads out the earths, Originator of the lofty heavens, who establishes hearts in their innate dispositions, whether wretched or blessed.”

The imams therefore prohibited unqualified affirmation or denial of the term “compulsion”—an innovation encompassing both truth and falsehood.

[Third example: Uttering the Quran]

Likewise, regarding the question of uttering the Quran: since the early generations and the imams agreed that the Quran is Allah’s speech, uncreated, and Muslims know that Gabriel conveyed the Quran from Allah to Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and Muhammad conveyed it to mankind, and that when someone conveys speech from its speaker, it remains the speech of the one from whom it is conveyed—rather, it belongs to the one who originally spoke it, not to the one who conveys it on his behalf,