loves, and then striving diligently in the voluntary acts which He loves and whose performers He loves. Thus, the servant did all he could of what the True Lord loves. The True Lord therefore loved him for doing what He loves, the aim on both sides being an accord of wills, such that each loves what his beloved loves and dislikes what his beloved dislikes. The Lord dislikes causing distress to His servant and beloved. It follows that the servant dislikes death, so that he may do more of what his Beloved loves.

Yet Allah, glorified and exalted be He, has decreed death. Whatever He decrees, He wills, and it must inevitably occur. The Lord therefore wills His servant’s death in accordance with His prior decree, while nevertheless disliking the distress it causes His servant—the distress he experiences through death. Death is thus willed by the True Lord in one respect and disliked by Him in another. This is the reality of hesitation: one and the same thing is willed in one respect and disliked in another, even though one side must prevail, as the will for death prevails here, while the dislike of causing His servant distress remains. His willing the death of the believer whom He loves and dislikes distressing is not like His willing the death of the disbeliever whom He hates and wishes to distress.

He then said, after some remarks already quoted:

In this same category fall the disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience that occur in existence. Allah Most High hates these things, is displeased with them, dislikes them, and forbids them. Yet He, glorified be He, has ordained, decreed, and willed them by His universal will, even if He does not will them by His religious will. This is the decisive answer to the question over which people have disputed: whether He, glorified be He, commands what He does not will.