the most misguided, the most ignorant, and the most ill-mannered of people. Indeed, he should be disciplined and given a discretionary punishment. The words of the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, must be safeguarded from false assumptions and corrupt beliefs.

Yet, although one of us may hesitate in a matter because he does not know its outcome, that with which Allah has described Himself cannot be likened to what is attributed to any one of us, for there is nothing like unto Allah. Furthermore, this assertion is false if stated without qualification. A person may sometimes hesitate because he does not know the consequences, and at other times because each of two courses of action involves benefits and harms. Thus, he desires an action for the benefit it entails, while disliking it for the harm it entails—not because he is ignorant of the one thing that he loves in one respect and dislikes in another. As has been said:

“Gray hair is disliked, yet I dislike parting from it—
How strange: a thing hated, yet beloved!”

This is like a sick person’s desire for his unpleasant medicine. Indeed, every righteous deed that a servant wishes to perform while the soul dislikes it falls under this category. In the authentic collection, it is related: “Hellfire is surrounded by desires, and Paradise is surrounded by hardships.” Allah Most High says: “Fighting has been prescribed for you, though you dislike it”—to the end of the verse.

In light of this, the meaning of the hesitation mentioned in the hadith becomes clear. For He says: “My servant continues to draw near to Me through voluntary deeds until I love him.” The servant who is in this state has become beloved to Allah and loves Him. He first draws near to Him through the obligatory duties, which he loves; then he exerts himself in the voluntary deeds, which he loves and whose doer Allah loves. Thus, he performs, to the extent of his ability, everything that Allah loves.

Allah therefore loves him for doing what He loves, from both sides, in the sense that their wills are in harmony: he loves what his Beloved loves and dislikes what his Beloved dislikes. The Lord dislikes that His servant and beloved should suffer; it therefore follows that He dislikes his death, so that he may increase in the things loved by his Beloved. Yet Allah, exalted is He, has decreed death. Whatever He decrees, He necessarily wills. Thus, the Lord wills his death because it has been decreed, while at the same time He dislikes the distress of His servant—the distress that death causes him.

Hence, death is willed by Allah in one respect and disliked by Him in another. This is the true meaning of hesitation: that one and the same thing is willed in one respect and disliked in another, even though one of the two aspects must prevail—as the will for death prevails—while there remains a dislike of the servant’s distress. His will for the death of the believer whom He loves and whose distress He dislikes is not like His will for the death of the disbeliever whom He hates and whose distress He wills.”