and more appropriate still. His prescribing this for Himself entails His willing it, loving it, and being pleased with it. His forbidding injustice to Himself entails His hatred of it and aversion to it. His willing and loving an act necessitate His performing it, while His hatred of it and aversion to doing it prevent Him from performing it.

As for what He loves and hates among His servants’ deeds, that is a different matter. There is a distinction between His own act and what He brings about and creates. Nothing He has created constitutes injustice on His part, even if it constitutes injustice on the part of the human being who commits it. Similarly, human actions, in relation to the human being, constitute theft, fornication, prayer, or fasting. Allah Most High creates them by His will, yet they do not bear these descriptions in relation to Him. These designations apply to the agent in whom the act occurs, just as attributes belong to the entity in which they subsist, not to the Creator who created them and made them attributes. Allah Most High created every maker and what he makes, as stated in the hadith, and He is the Creator of every being possessing attributes and of its attributes.

Yet the attributes of created things—such as colours, tastes, and smells—are not His attributes, because they do not subsist in Him. Likewise, the movements of created things are not His movements, nor, in this respect, are they His acts, since they are effects that He has created. This distinction dispels many doubts.

He deserves praise and commendation for what He has prescribed for Himself. He is far exalted above failing to fulfil it, for such a failure, were it to occur, would be a deficiency. Likewise, He deserves praise and commendation for refraining from what He has forbidden to Himself. He is far exalted above doing it, for were He to do it, that would entail a deficiency.