So if someone believes that certain people deserve punishment, yet Allah has forgiven them and shown them mercy, and he resents this, his resentment stems either from a will that opposes Allah’s judgment or from an assumption that contradicts Allah’s knowledge. Allah is All-Knowing, All-Wise. Once you know that He is All-Knowing and All-Wise, no grounds remain for resenting what He has done. This applies to what He has commanded and to what He has left, which He has not commanded us to hate or resent.

As for things that exist which He has commanded us to hate—such as disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience—we must obey His command. This is unlike His acceptance of His servants’ repentance and His deliverance of them from punishment. These are among His deeds that He has not commanded us to hate; rather, they are things He loves, for He loves those who repent and those who purify themselves. To resent this is a form of following a will that rivals His divinity.

Anyone harbouring such a will must therefore make his worship sincerely devoted to Allah alone, saying:

“None has the right to be worshipped but You.”

We must love what He loves, be pleased with what pleases Him, enjoin what He commands, and forbid what He prohibits. Since He “loves those who repent and loves those who purify themselves,” we must love them, rather than make gods of our own wishes that conflict with what He loves.

The discussion here rests upon a “principle”: by the consensus of the Muslim community, the prophets, may Allah’s blessings be upon them, are protected from error in what they report about Allah, glorified be He, and in conveying His messages. Hence, it is obligatory to believe in everything they were given, as