are reducible to will, and will accords with knowledge. The meaning, then, is that Allah has willed from eternity to reward these people after their belief and to punish Iblīs after his unbelief. This meaning is sound, for Allah wills to create everything He knows He will create.

Those who affirm these as distinct attributes say that His love, too, corresponds to whom He wills to reward: He loves everyone He wills to reward and hates everyone He wills to punish. This, in turn, accords with His knowledge. According to them, He does not become pleased with anyone after having been displeased with him, nor does He rejoice at a servant’s repentance after accepting it; rather, He has rejoiced at his repentance from eternity. They understand rejoicing as either will or pleasure. The meaning is that He has willed from eternity to reward him, or has been pleased from eternity with the one He wills to reward. Likewise, according to them, His anger is not specific to the Day of Resurrection as opposed to the time before it. Rather, His anger is beginningless, whether understood as will or as something else.

These people say:

“If Allah knows that a person will die an unbeliever, He has willed from eternity to punish him. Thus, the faith that person once possessed is invalid and of no benefit; its existence is as good as its nonexistence. Such a person is therefore not a believer at all. If Allah knows that he will die a believer, He has willed from eternity to reward him, and the unbelief he committed is as good as nonexistent. Thus, according to them, this person was never an unbeliever at all.”

On this basis, they qualify their profession of faith with “if Allah wills.” Some of their leading scholars, such as Abū Mansūr al-Māturīdī, likewise qualify a declaration of unbelief, since their reasoning applies equally to both. However, the vast majority of the imams hold that a declaration of unbelief is not to be qualified in this way, and that doing so is an innovation not known to have been practised by any of the early generations. Nevertheless, it is a necessary consequence of their position.

Those among them who distinguished between the two said:

“We qualify our profession of faith with ‘if Allah wills,’ beseeching Allah to