He, exalted be He, also says, “Allah was already pleased with the believers when they pledged allegiance to you beneath the tree” ⦗Al-Fath: 18⦘. And just as He is pleased, He likewise becomes angry: “Say, ‘Shall I inform you of something worse than that as a recompense with Allah? It is those whom Allah has cursed and with whom He is angry’” ⦗Al-Māʾidah: 60⦘. Thus Allah grows angry with whoever disobeys Him and detests him; maqt (detestation) is the most intense form of hatred. The Most High says, “Whoever deliberately kills a believer—his recompense is Hell, to abide therein; and Allah’s wrath and curse are upon him, and He has prepared for him a tremendous punishment” ⦗Al-Nisāʾ: 93⦘.

Created beings, too, become angry and pleased, yet there is no likeness whatsoever between the anger and pleasure of the creature and the anger and pleasure of the Creator. Allah’s approval and anger befit Him in a manner appropriate to His majesty, while the approval and anger of the creature befit the creature, like the rest of his attributes. “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” ⦗Al-Shūrā: 11⦘. He has no equal in His Essence, His names, or His attributes. True, both the Creator and the creature possess names and attributes, but the two bear no resemblance.

Such is the creed of Ahl al-Sunnah wa-l-Jamāʿah: they affirm for Allah pleasure, anger, and every other attribute that He has affirmed for Himself. Although a category of these attributes exists among created beings, the crucial distinction remains: “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing” ⦗Al-Shūrā: 11⦘. The creature, too, hears and sees, and Allah has described Himself as “the All-Hearing, the All-Seeing,” but He prefaced that description with “There is nothing like unto Him,” demonstrating that the attributes of the Creator differ fundamentally from those of the created