And we believe that Allah the Exalted is pleased with what He has prescribed of deeds and words, and He dislikes what He has forbidden of them. “If you disbelieve, then indeed Allah is free of you and does not approve…”

The Shaykh : He said: "And we believe that Allah the Exalted is pleased with what He has prescribed of deeds and words, and He dislikes what He has forbidden from them". Therefore, we affirm that Allah is pleased and that He dislikes, with true pleasure and true dislike. He is described as (Exalted and Majestic is He) with pleasure and dislike. The *mu'attilah* (those who deny the divine attributes) denied that Allah is described with these two attributes. They said that what came in the texts regarding pleasure means the reward or the desire for reward, and what came regarding dislike means the punishment or the desire for punishment. This is based on their defective methodology. You know that these *mu'attilah* build their denial on rational proofs, which are in reality not rational but illusory. They imagine that affirming this attribute necessitates likening Allah to creation, so they deny the evidence. If He is free from our need, does the one who is harmed get harmed? The disbeliever is harmed. The disbeliever. This is a negation of pleasure, so by its implication it indicates that He is pleased with their faith. For this reason, He stated it explicitly in His saying:
And in this verse is evidence that gratitude for the blessing is part of faith, and its denial is part of disbelief. This is evidence of dislike. He said: O Allah, protect us. This verse is very serious and a measure. That is, in jihad. So beware and examine yourself. If you see yourself being lazy about good, fear that Allah may have disliked your striving in good. Then review your state a second time, restrain your self, and force it to obedience. Today you do it reluctantly, and tomorrow you will do it willingly, and it will be easy for you. The important thing is that this contains a severe warning for anyone who sees in himself a discouragement from obedience. Perhaps Allah the Exalted disliked that this man be among His obedient servants, so He discouraged him from obedience. We ask Allah to help us in His remembrance, gratitude, and good worship.
The point of this verse is His saying: He did not say, “And He said to them, sit with those who sit,” because Allah does not command obscenity. But Who is the one who said it?
The student: Allah

The Shaykh : The self, not Allah. The self. The self prompts the person, saying, “Sit.” It is not that this time he goes, and the next time Satan discourages him from good. A bad companion discourages him from good. That is why the doer was omitted, meaning the one who said it, to be more comprehensive. Those who say, are several. We mentioned three of them: the self, Satan, and the bad companion.