and the doers of good and those who constantly repent. He is pleased with those who believe and do righteous deeds, and He rejoices at the repentance of one who repents more greatly than a man who has lost his mount—bearing his food and drink—in a deadly wilderness rejoices when, after despairing (1) of finding it, he recovers it. Hadiths to this effect from the Prophet—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—have been widely transmitted through several chains in the two Sahih collections and elsewhere. One such hadith states:

“Allah rejoices more intensely at the repentance of one of you than a man whose mount(2) strayed from him in a barren, deadly land(3), bearing his food and drink. He searched for it but could not find it, so he went to sleep awaiting death. When he awoke, there stood his animal, still bearing his food and drink. Allah rejoices more intensely at His servant’s repentance than this man does upon recovering his mount”(4).

The philosophers(5) use the terms delight, pleasure(6), passionate love, and the like to denote joy, love, and their attendant states. Since this is so, He—Glorified is He—wills [some] things(7) to exist because they lead to what He loves and approves of. Yet He—Glorified is He—may refrain from doing some of what He loves because it would necessarily entail the existence of something He dislikes and hates. Thus He—Glorified is He—is able to create from every sperm-drop a man whom He makes a believer in Him(8), whom He loves, and whose faith He loves. But He has not done so because of the wisdom He has in this(9), and He may know that doing so would lead to something He hates and dislikes.