Allah Can Do as He Wishes

Some of the beliefs of the Muʿtazilah give an understanding of how far this rationalism took them. They said that it was necessary for Allah to reward the pious person for the good deeds that they do, and it was necessary for Allah (swt) to punish the person who sinned. Necessary for Allah. Our belief, the belief of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah, is that all of this is up to Allah (swt). If He wants to reward the person who does good, He will reward him. And the thing is that He will, because He makes a promise, and Allah does not go against His promise. But not because it is necessary on Him; rather, because Allah wants to do that.

That much is quite straightforward. But on the other side there is the sinning believer, a believer who sins and transgresses: what about that person? For that person, the Muʿtazilah said that he has to be punished according to the amount of sins that he has committed. Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah say: no, it is up to Allah. Allah has every right to punish this person for what he has done, out of His justice, because that is the just way of doing things. But if He wants, He can completely forgive him. There are stories about that. There are narrations about that: how Allah (swt) will forgive certain people who have committed so many sins. So the opinion of Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah does not obligate anything on Allah. Allah can do as He wishes, as He mentions. Whereas the Muʿtazilah put Allah into the system, and they restrict Him.

Another thing that they believe is that it is necessary for Allah to do what is best for the human being, to act in the best interest of the human being. Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah say that Allah is the Most Loving, and Allah does act in the best interest of human beings; but a lot of the time we do not understand that. We do not project what is good or bad onto Allah. The Muʿtazilīs say that whatever humans think to be good, Allah has to think good as well; whatever the human being thinks is bad and ugly, Allah has to deem ugly as well. So it is the other way around.

Whereas Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jamāʿah believe that Allah (swt) is the one who dictates what is good and what is bad; and we have to accept that sometimes our minds and our intellect do not comprehend the beauty in a thing. Sometimes they do later on; sometimes they do not. But we have to hold that whatever Allah (swt) does is out of His wisdom, and that there is a wise purpose behind it. From this it can be understood how ʿaql, intellect, is given such a high position with the Muʿtazilīs.