—indeed, Allah has power over all things.”
“He punishes whom He wills and shows mercy to whom He wills, and to Him you will be returned.”
Mercy is the opposite of punishment. Punishment is His act and occurs by His will; likewise, mercy occurs by His will, as He says:
“And shows mercy to whom He wills.”
But the eternal will inseparable from His essence—or another attribute of His essence—is not subject to His will; mercy, then, would not occur by His will.
If it is said that only created things distinct from Him come about by His will, it follows that mercy would not be an attribute of the Lord, but something He creates. Yet He is described only by what subsists in Him, not by created things. Thus, He would not be the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.
It is established in the two Sahīh collections that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said:
“When Allah had completed creation, He wrote in a Book, which is kept with Him above the Throne: ‘My mercy prevails over My wrath.’” In another narration: “precedes My wrath.”
Whatever precedes something that comes after it can only do so by the Lord’s will and power. On the view of anyone who says that mercy is nothing but an eternal will or something similar, it would be impossible for Him to have wrath preceded by that mercy. For if wrath is interpreted as will, will does not precede itself. Likewise, if it is interpreted as an attribute that is itself eternal, one eternal attribute does not precede another. If it is interpreted in terms of created things, He would possess neither mercy nor wrath.
He has distinguished His wrath from His punishment in His words:
“His recompense is Hell, where he will remain forever. Allah is angry with him, has cursed him, and has prepared for him a tremendous punishment.”
And His words:
“And that He may punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the polytheists, men and women, who harbour evil thoughts about Allah. Upon them shall fall an evil turn of fortune. Allah is angry with them, has cursed them, and has prepared Hell for them—what an evil destination!”
In the hadith narrated by Imam Ahmad from the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, he used to say: