decreed by Allah, we would be commanded to be content with them, whereas being content with what Allah has forbidden is impermissible. Ahl al-Sunnah offered three answers to this argument:

The first—which is the answer given by these scholars and the great majority of the leading scholars—is that this generalization is invalid. We are not commanded to be content with everything Allah has decreed and ordained. No such command appears in the Quran or the Sunnah. Rather, we must be content with whatever He has commanded us to be content with, such as obedience to Allah and His Messenger. This is what Abū al-Qāsim mentioned.

The second answer was: We are content with the decree, which is Allah’s attribute or act, not with what is decreed, which is the result of His act. There is a weakness in this answer, which we have explained elsewhere.

The third answer was: These sins have two aspects: one relating to the servant, insofar as they are his action, his doing, and his acquisition; and another relating to the Lord, insofar as He created, decreed, and ordained them. One is 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, a cause of punishment and blame, and the like, pertains only to their attribution to the servant.

This subject involves the disclosure of truths and mysteries, some of which we have discussed elsewhere; there is no room for them here. For