and is pleased, as indicated by the Quran and Sunnah.

They say that love and pleasure are more specific than will. The Muʿtazila and most of al-Ashʿarī’s followers, however, say that (1) love, pleasure, and will are all the same. The majority of Ahl al-Sunnah maintain that Allah neither loves disbelief, wickedness, and disobedience nor is He pleased with them, even though they fall within what He wills, just as all other created things do, because of the wisdom involved. Although such conduct is evil with respect to the one who commits it, not everything that is evil with respect to a particular person is devoid of wisdom. Rather, Allah has wise purposes in created things that some people may know and others may not.

They answer the infinite-regress objection in two ways.

The first is to say: This is an infinite succession of future events (2), not past events. When He performs an act for a wise purpose, that purpose is realized after the act. If that purpose is then intended to lead to another wise purpose after it, this constitutes an infinite succession into the future. The realized purpose is loved by Him and serves as the cause of a second wise purpose. Thus, glorified is He, He continually brings about wise ends that He loves and makes them causes of further things that He loves.

They said: An infinite succession into the future is deemed possible by the great majority of Muslims and by others, both adherents of religions and those who follow no religion (3). The bliss of Paradise [and the torment] (4) of the Fire are everlasting (5), while events continually occur anew in both. The only one who denied this was Jahm ibn Safwān,