brought into being by His will and power, and He is its Creator; this applies equally to His servants’ actions and to everything else.”

They then said, “Since He wills everything that occurs, and will is the same as love and approval, He loves and approves of everything that occurs.” They also said, “Whatever disbelief, sinful defiance, and disobedience exists, Allah approves of it and loves it, just as He wills it.”

They were then told: Yet He, Exalted is He, has said:

“He does not love corruption,”

and:

“Nor does He approve disbelief for His servants.”

They replied, “This is equivalent to saying that He does not will corruption and does not will disbelief for His servants. This admits of two interpretations.”

The first is that this applies specifically to those who have not committed disbelief or corruption. According to them, there is no doubt that Allah neither wills nor loves what has not occurred. Thus they said, “It means that He does not love corruption for His believing servants, nor does He approve of it for them.”

What their position actually entails is that Allah likewise neither loves nor approves of faith on the part of the disbelievers. In their view, love and approval, like will, relate to what has occurred, not to what has not occurred—whether it is commanded or forbidden, and whether it is among the causes of His servants’ happiness or misery. They hold that Allah loves whatever disbelief, sinful defiance, and disobedience has occurred, and does not love whatever faith and obedience has not occurred, just as He willed the former but not the latter.

As for the second interpretation, they said, “He does not love corruption as religion, nor does He approve of it as religion.” What this statement actually means is that He does not will it as religion. For when He wills something to occur in a particular manner, He does not will it to occur otherwise; and when He wills something to occur together with something else