Chapter: The saying of Allah the Exalted: “Say, He is the All-Competent.”

The reader: The chapter on the saying of Allah the Exalted:
Ibrahim ibn Mundhir narrated to me, saying: Mu'ayyad ibn Isa narrated to us, saying: Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Mawali narrated to me, saying: I heard Muhammad ibn al-Munkid narrating to Abdullah ibn al-Hasan, saying: Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Salami informed me, saying: .

The Shaykh : This is also among the names of Allah Mighty and Majestic: al-Qadir (the All-Competent), al-Qadir (the All-Powerful), and al-Muqtadir (the All-Prevailing). However, al-Qadir came in a restricted form, such as His saying the Exalted: . As for al-Qadir and al-Muqtadir, they came in an unrestricted form, such as: . They also came in a restricted form, but with generality: . And al-Muqtadir came in an unrestricted form: . All of these return to one meaning, which is power (qudrah). Power is the action of the actor without weakness. The opposite of power is weakness. The evidence for this is the saying of Allah the Exalted: . He said: . He explained this by saying that He is All-Knowing and All-Competent. The opposite of the All-Knowing is the ignorant, and the opposite of the All-Competent is the incapable. It is known that the ignorant is incapable of something. A person may be capable and not weak, but due to his ignorance of a thing, he cannot do it. Or a person may be knowledgeable but weak, so he cannot do it. Allah Mighty and Majestic is not prevented by anything, and nothing makes Him weak, because He is All-Knowing and All-Competent. Then, power is connected to everything, general in everything, as Allah Blessed and Exalted said: . So power is not connected to will; He is capable of what He wills and what He does not will. As for His saying the Exalted: , the connection to will here does not return to power, but it returns to gathering. That is, if He wills to gather them, He is not incapable of it; rather, He is All-Competent over them. From this, you know that the saying of some people that “He is All-Competent over what He wills” is an error. Because if they say He is All-Competent over what He wills, they have restricted power to what He wills, which necessitates that He is not capable of what He does not will. Then, the doctrine of the Mu'tazilah comes to us from this aspect, where they say that Allah Glorified and Exalted does not will the actions of the servants. Consequently, Allah would be incapable of the actions of the servants because He does not will them. Therefore, it is necessary to alert those who say this. As for what came in the hadith in which the Prophet informed about the last people to enter Paradise, where Allah Blessed and Exalted said to him: , this is connected to a specific action. What is connected to a specific action indicates that Allah is capable of it if He wills it. That is why he said, “Over what I will, I am All-Competent,” and did not say “All-Powerful” (Qadir), because it is connected to a specific action. For example, if we see a matter that we find strange, either because it is unlikely or because of its greatness, we say that Allah is All-Competent over what He wills. That is, when He wills this thing, He is capable of it. But if we want to bring the name and attribute in an unrestricted sense, we do not say “over what He wills,” for fear that it may be imagined that what He does not will, He is not capable of, even though Allah the Exalted is capable of everything, what He wills and what He does not will. But what He wills happens, and what He does not will does not happen. It is mentioned that the soldiers of Satan said to him: “We see you rejoice when a scholar dies more than you rejoice when a worshipper dies, because the scholar is more severe for Satan than the worshipper.” He said: “Yes.” He said about himself that he rejoices at the death of a scholar more than he rejoices at the death of a thousand worshippers. And I will test the scholar and the worshipper. He said he sent his soldiers to the worshipper: “Can Allah place the heavens and the earth in the belly of an egg?” The worshipper, by his nature, said: “He cannot place the heavens and the earth in the belly of an egg.” The soldiers returned to their leader and said: “He said that He cannot.” He said: “He denied the power of Allah.” Then he sent them to the scholar and said: “Can Allah place the heavens and the earth in the belly of an egg?” He said: “Yes.” They said: “How is that?” He said: . If Allah commands the heavens and the earth to be in the egg, they become either the heavens and earth become smaller, or the egg becomes larger. The important thing is that if Allah wills it, He says to it, “Be,” and it is. So the result is that power is connected to everything . But some scholars mentioned that power is not connected to the impossible, because the impossible is impossible in existence. For example, is it possible for the moving to be stationary while it is moving? It is not possible for the moving to be stationary while it is moving. It is moving now, so do we say it is stationary? No, it is not possible. They said: If it is asked, “Is it possible for Allah to make the moving stationary at the same time?” It is not possible. Why? Because if it moves, it does not become stationary, and if it becomes stationary, it does not move. But Allah is capable of making the moving stationary, meaning it ends up being stationary, and the stationary ends up being moving. That is why al-Safarini said in his creed: “And He became All-Competent with a power that was connected to the possible”. Why? Because the impossible is non-existence, not a thing. But with that, for the student of knowledge, it may be acceptable to bear such a detail, because he knows that the impossible is by its name. But it is not befitting for the common person to be given this detail, because his mind does not grasp this thing. It is said to the common person that Allah is All-Competent over everything, that is all. The author of al-Jalalayn mentioned in Surat al-Ma'idah, regarding the saying of Allah Blessed and Exalted: , he said: “And He restricted the intellect to His Self, meaning the Self of Allah, so He is not All-Competent over it”. What is the intellect that He restricted to His Self? The intellect of one who did not estimate Allah with His true estimation. So what is the meaning of your saying: “He restricted the intellect to His Self, so He is not All-Competent over it”? If you mean He is not All-Competent over creating something like Him, we say that power was not connected to it in the first place. Or if you mean He is not All-Competent over destroying Himself, then power was not connected to it in the first place. Or do you want to deny the voluntary actions, as is their intention? That He is not capable of descending, or of rising to the sky, or of rising over the Throne, or of laughing, or of becoming angry? We do not agree with you on this. And you know that the Asha'irah and many who agreed with them hold that it is not possible for voluntary actions to occur in Allah Mighty and Majestic. That is, it is not possible for Him to do an action that He chooses, ever. Descending, rising, coming, laughing, becoming angry—it is not possible. It is known that this is originally from their principles, that voluntary actions do not occur in the Self of Allah. So based on this defective creed, he said: “He restricted the intellect to His Self, so He is not All-Competent over it”. And you have known the detail in this. We said: If he means by this what is impossible for Allah, then this is true; it will not be. But we do not say He is not All-Competent over it. What do we say? We say that power is not connected to it in the first place. And if he means by this the voluntary actions of Allah, that He is not capable of coming, or rising over the Throne, or rising to the sky, and the like, then we do not approve of this. Rather, we say that Allah said in His Book: . And He said: . And He said: . It is clear, my brothers. Therefore, it is necessary for the student of knowledge, when he comes across such dangerous words, to annotate the book if he has knowledge with which he can refute this error. And if he does not have knowledge, he does not annotate. But if he has knowledge and the issue requires alerting, let him annotate, may Allah reward him with good, because the book may be read after him, so he annotates it. For example, it is said: This word, in its unrestricted sense, is not correct, and this detail that we mentioned is explained. And the summary of the speech now is that among the names of Allah the Exalted are al-Qadir, al-Muqtadir, and al-Qadir, but they are restricted, so they become attributes of action. Then, we say that power is not connected to will, so it is not said that Allah is All-Competent over what He wills, but it is said that Allah is All-Competent over everything, as He said the Exalted about Himself. And power is action without weakness.