Will

Know that Will (Al-Iradah or Al-Mashi’ah) is necessary to attribute to Allah. It is an Eternal and Everlasting Attribute; by it, Allah specifies the mentally possible with existence instead of non-existence, and with an attribute over another, and with a time instead of another. The evidence for the necessity of Allah’s Attribute of Will is that had He not been Willful, then nothing of this world would exist, because the world is a mental possibility; mentally, its existence is not inherently necessary. The world is existent, so we know that it only existed by the Specification of He who Specified its existence and Made the side of existence weightful over the side of non-existence. Therefore, it is confirmed that Allah is Willful.

Furthermore, the Will, according to the People of the Truth, is inclusive of the deeds of the slaves entirely; the good and the bad. So all of what came into existence of the bad deeds, good deeds, blasphemy, sins, and obedience took place by the Will of Allah. This is perfection in reference to Allah the Exalted, because the inclusivity of the Power and Will is befitting for the Greatness of Allah. Had something in His Dominion taken place without His Will, that would have been evidence of weakness, and weakness is impossible for Allah. The Will follows the Knowledge, i.e., whatever Allah Knew would occur, He Willed for it to occur, and whatever He Knew would not be, He did not Will for it to be.

The Will does not follow the Order, as proven by the fact that Allah ordered Ibrahim to slaughter his son, Isma^il, and He did not Will that for him. If it were said, “How would Allah Order for something that He did not Will to happen?”, the answer is that He could Order what He did not Will, just like He Knew that the slave would do something when He Ordered him not to do it.