and the one who is loved, and bring the lover joy, pleasure, and delight upon perceiving his beloved. Likewise, hatred arises only from an incompatibility between the one who hates and the object of his hatred; perceiving what he hates therefore causes him hurt, hatred, and the like. Compatibility and incompatibility imply need, since a living being does not love what he does not need; and how could he hate what does not harm him? Allah, however, is self-sufficient, and need cannot be attributed to Him. Were need possible for Him, this would entail His having come into existence and being contingent, whereas He has no need of any of creation. He Most High has said—that is, in the divine hadith:

‘O My servants, you can never harm Me, nor can you ever benefit Me.’

For this reason, love and approval have been interpreted as will, since He brings about benefit and harm.”

The answer has two aspects.

The first is to show that the same objection applies to the opposing view. We say:

Will exists only because of an affinity between the one who wills and what he wills, and its compatibility with him likewise implies need. Otherwise, a living being neither benefits from nor wills what he does not need. Similarly, when he wills to punish and harm someone, this can only arise from aversion and hatred. Otherwise, a living being does not dislike or repel something that causes him no pain whatsoever.

Likewise, the very act of benefiting or harming another is, in a living being, at variance with need; for one of us does good to another only to obtain some benefit or avert some harm, and harms another only to obtain some benefit or avert some harm. Thus, if someone affirms one attribute and denies another, yet what he affirms entails the same objection as what he denies, affirming the one and denying the other is no more justified than the reverse. Were someone to reverse the argument and deny the will that he has affirmed