one of whom kills the other: he is pleased that one enemy is gone, but distressed that another has prevailed. He may also have two friends, one of whom removes the other from office: he is distressed at one friend’s removal, but pleased that another has assumed office. Most worldly affairs are like this, for unmixed benefit is rare. Most events contain something distressing and something pleasing. Thus, an act includes what is beneficial, loved, desired, and sought, as well as what is harmful, hated, disliked, and resisted. Likewise, one who issues commands commands the attainment of what is beneficial and prohibits the attainment of what is harmful. He therefore commands prayer, which involves benefit, and prohibits usurpation, which involves harm.

If they say:

“What is impossible is for him to command someone to perform a single act in one and the same respect, saying, ‘Pray here, and do not pray here.’ This combines contradictories, and combining contradictories is impossible, since it combines negation and affirmation,”

they may be answered as follows:

“Combining contradictories is impossible in a statement of fact. If you say, ‘Zayd prayed here; he did not pray here,’ this is impossible, because prayer here must either occur or not occur. Its occurrence consists in the prayer itself and the inseparable attributes that follow from it, which involve no relation, reference, or connection to anything else. But combining opposites in desire and aversion, seeking and resisting, love and hatred, and benefit and harm is not impossible. A thing’s existence may be desired, and its nonexistence may also be desired, if each brings some benefit to the one who desires it. Its existence or nonexistence may also be both desired and disliked, such that a person experiences pleasure and pain both at its existence and at its nonexistence, as has been said: