Allah’s attribute or act, but we are not content with what is decreed, which is the result of His act.” This answer has a weakness that we have explained elsewhere.

The third answer is that they said these sins have two aspects: one relates to the servant, insofar as they are his act, his doing, and his acquisition; the other relates to the Lord, insofar as He created, decreed, and ordained them. We are therefore content with them insofar as they are attributed to Allah, but not insofar as they are attributed to the servant. For their being evil, reprehensible, forbidden, and a cause of punishment, blame, and the like pertains only to their attribution to the servant.

This is a subject involving the disclosure of truths and mysteries, some of which we have discussed elsewhere, and for which there is insufficient scope here. It concerns questions of the divine attributes and decree, and is among the greatest subjects of religious inquiry, among the noblest branches of knowledge of earlier and later generations, and among the most subtle for the minds of most people to grasp.