Azami 208

Bukhari related it in "Raqaq" (6557), and Muslim in "The Characteristics of the Hypocrites" (2805), both from Muhammad bin Bashshar, who said, Muhammad bin Jafar Ghundar narrated to us, Shubah narrated to us, from Abu Imran, who said, I heard Anas bin Malik, and he mentioned it. Muslim also related it through another route, from Muaz bin Muaz Anbari, from Shubah, and in it he said, "I had wanted something easier than this from you while you were still in the loins of Adam, that you not commit shirk against Me, I think he said, and that I would not admit you into the Fire, but you refused and insisted on shirk." In another version he narrated, "I asked for something easier than that."As for his saying, "I had wanted from you," it means, I had loved from you. The word "wanting" (irada) in the sharia is used in two senses. Sometimes it is used to mean what encompasses both good and evil, guidance and misguidance, as in the Almighty's saying, "Whoever Allah wants to guide, He expands his chest to Islam, and whoever He wants to leave astray, He makes his chest tight and constricted, as if he were climbing into the sky" [Anam 6:125]. This kind of wanting never fails to occur.At other times it is used to mean what corresponds to love and pleasure, as in the Almighty's saying, "The month of Ramadan in which the Quran was sent down, a guidance for mankind, and clear signs from guidance, and a criterion. So whoever among you witnesses the month, let him fast it, and whoever is ill or on a journey, then a number of other days. Allah wants ease for you, and He does not want hardship for you, and He wants you to complete the number, and to magnify Allah for having guided you, so that you may be grateful" [Baqarah 2:185]. This is the meaning intended by the Almighty's words in this hadith, "I had wanted from you," that is, "I had loved." This kind of wanting may sometimes fail to occur, because Allah does not compel anyone to obey Him, even though He created them for that purpose, "So whoever wills, let him believe, and whoever wills, let him disbelieve" [Kahf 18:29]. Accordingly, Allah may want something from His servant that the servant does not do, and He may love something from him that He does not will for him. Ibn Qayyim, may Allah have mercy on him, calls this kind of wanting "the cosmic will," taking this from the Almighty's saying, "His command, when He wants a thing, is only that He says to it, 'Be,' and it is" [Yasin 36:82]. He calls the other kind of wanting, the one that corresponds to pleasure, "the legislative will."