But the correct view is that of the majority. This is like His saying:

“Say, ‘My Lord has only forbidden indecencies, whether open or concealed, sin, and unjust aggression.’”

This denies that anything outside these categories is forbidden and affirms that they are forbidden. But does He affirm fear of Allah for the knowledgeable as a class, or for every individual scholar? Compare the statements: “Only Muslims perform Hajj” and “No one performs Hajj except a Muslim.” The question is whether the excepted case entails the predicate or is a condition for it.

In this verse and others like it, it entails the predicate, so the statement applies universally. For knowledge of what the messengers warned against necessarily produces fear. Since knowledge produces the fear that prompts one to do good deeds and refrain from evil deeds, and every sinner is ignorant and lacks complete knowledge, this demonstrates what we have stated: the root of evil deeds is ignorance and lack of knowledge. That being so, lack of knowledge is not something that exists. Rather, it is like the absence of ability, hearing, sight, and all other privations.

Nonexistence has no agent and is not itself a thing; a thing is only that which exists. Allah Most High is the Creator of all things. Pure nonexistence, therefore, cannot be attributed to Allah. Yet something that exists may accompany it. If a person has no knowledge of Allah, he is not prompted by it to do good deeds and refrain from evil deeds. The soul is by nature continually changing, for it is alive, and will and voluntary movement are among