The compulsionist Jahmiyya said:
“Rather, He wills everything; therefore, He intends it, loves it, and is pleased with it.”
The Salaf and their followers, however, distinguish between will and love. As for volition, it is sometimes used in the sense of will and sometimes in the sense of love.
Al-Ash‘arī reported two positions from Ahl al-Sunna who affirm the divine decree: the position of those who distinguish between love and pleasure, and that of those who equate the two. He himself chose to equate them.
Abū al-Ma‘ālī said that Abū al-Hasan was the first to equate them. Yet I found that, in al-Mūjaz, he related his position from Sulaymān ibn Harb, Ibn Kullāb, al-Karābīsī, and Dāwūd ibn Alī.
Similarly, Ibn Aqīl said:
“The Muslims unanimously agree that Allah does not love disbelief, wickedness, or disobedience. No one but al-Ash‘arī has said that He loves such things.”
As for Judge Abū Ya‘lā, in al-Mu‘tamad he agrees with al-Ash‘arī, while in his Abridgment he mentions both positions. In al-Mu‘tamad, he also cites the position of Abū Bakr Abd al-Azīz, who held that there is a distinction, but then placed a false interpretation upon Abū Bakr’s words (1).
Nevertheless, the adherents of all religious communities agree that Allah rewards acts of obedience and punishes sins, even though His will encompasses both kinds. They therefore concede that there is a distinction as it pertains to His servants. Those who claim spiritual knowledge and realization, and annihilation in both, seek to have no will of their own; rather, they will what the Real—Most High—wills. They say:
“Perfection is for your own will to be annihilated and for you to subsist with your Lord’s will.”
In their view, all existent things, in relation to