and the sense of urging and demanding.

However, people disagree over whether the latter applies to Allah, as in His words:

“I will surely fill Hell with you and all those among them who follow you.”

And His words:

“And when your Lord declared that He would surely send against them, until the Day of Resurrection, those who would subject them to grievous torment.”

Those who say that His wisdom, His judgment, or His will necessitates this maintain that it may be known through reason. They say that reason may establish that messengers must necessarily be sent, and that this is necessary according to His judgment and wisdom. This is the position of many groups, or most of them.

Others say that none of this can be known except through revelation. This is the position of the Jahmiyyah and the Ashʿariyyah, whereas the former is the position of the Muʿtazilah, the Karrāmiyyah, and the Hanafīs, or most of them. Among the followers of Mālik, al-Shāfiʿī, and Ahmad, some hold this view. The majority of jurists, however, together with the early generations, affirm divine wisdom and that His acts have underlying reasons. Only those among them who agree with the Jahmī determinists deny this, such as al-Ashʿarī and those who agree with him.

Likewise, the majority of them affirm that acts possess attributes by virtue of which they are good or evil and reprehensible. They do not regard their goodness and badness as a preference for one of two alternatives without any determining ground beyond sheer will, as the Jahmiyyah and those who agree with them maintain.