—together with loving those qualities and being pleased with them.

ḥamd is unanimously offered for blessings, and—according to the well-known position—it is also offered for matters other than blessings, that is, for righteous deeds even when they are not personal favors to the one who praises. shukr, by contrast, is restricted to blessings alone; this is the prevailing view.

The more exact determination, however, is that everything Allah, exalted be He, does is itself a blessing, or at least contains within it some blessing that merits both praise and gratitude. Calamities and illnesses are expiations and purifications, and are therefore blessings. The destruction of those who deny the truth and the punishment of disbelievers is likewise a blessing for the believers, who take admonition from it. Hence His words: “So which of your Lord’s favors will you both deny?” (Q 55:13). The term ʾālāʾ means “blessings,” and He uttered this verse after mentioning Hell and other matters.

Is praise due for His Essence and the attributes inseparable from it? On this there is a difference of opinion. Some have said—al-Rāzī relating it in his Tafsīr—that one is commended for them (yumdah) but not praised (yuḥmad). The correct view is that He is praised for them as well, for they are the ultimate source to which all praise returns and where it converges. Moreover, the delight servants take in that which pertains to the Divine Essence surpasses the delight they find in created things: in this world through knowledge, remembrance, and love, and in the Hereafter through beholding and gazing upon Him. Allah the Exalted has said: “And say: Praise be to Allah, who has never taken a son…” (Q 17:111).