LessonsDivine Guidance and Misguidance, and the Debate over What Is BestQuiz

In some philosophical accounts, “necessary” means that an effect must issue from a nature such that nonoccurrence is impossible. This is not the same as a moral or legal obligation.

If every supposedly best act issued from Allah through this sort of necessary emanation, choice and will would no longer function as genuinely distinct notions; the act would follow by necessity alone. The Sunni account instead affirms Allah as a voluntary agent.

Thus “Allah acts wisely” does not entail “every conceivable optimally beneficial act must emanate from Him without the possibility of its omission.”

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A second meaning: necessity of emanation

Divine Guidance and Misguidance, and the Debate over What Is Best

In some philosophical accounts, “necessary” means that an effect must issue from a nature such that nonoccurrence is impossible. This is not the same as a moral or legal obligation.

If every supposedly best act issued from Allah through this sort of necessary emanation, choice and will would no longer function as genuinely distinct notions; the act would follow by necessity alone. The Sunni account instead affirms Allah as a voluntary agent.

Thus “Allah acts wisely” does not entail “every conceivable optimally beneficial act must emanate from Him without the possibility of its omission.”