Affirming Divine Love, Mercy, Anger, and Jealousy
One of the defining features of Ashʿarī theology is its approach to divine attributes. While Ashʿarīs affirm the names and qualities of Allah mentioned in the Qurʾān, they often interpret attributes that imply volitional significance in metaphorical terms. Love (maḥabba), mercy (raḥmah), anger (ghaḍab), and jealousy (ghayrah) are also prone to such reinterpretation. The Ashʿarī position maintains that these are not real attributes Allah possesses in His essence but are metaphors for certain divine actions or decisions. Love means He rewards. Mercy means He bestows blessings. Anger means He punishes. Jealousy, if acknowledged at all, is either dismissed or allegorized.
This approach supposedly aims to uphold divine transcendence and to protect Allah from any imagined likeness to creation. But in doing so, it departs from how revelation presents these attributes. The Qurʾān and Sunnah describe them in clear terms, repeatedly and without qualification. The Salaf affirmed these attributes upon revelation, without taʾwīl, denial, or inventing philosophical caveats. They affirmed the meaning of the attributes while denying knowledge of the modality and rejecting any likeness to creation.
Start with love. In the Qurʾān, Allah describes Himself as loving certain people: “Indeed, Allah loves those who repent and loves those who purify themselves” (2:222), and again: “Say: If you love Allah, follow me, and Allah will love you” (3:31). In another verse, “He will bring a people whom He loves and who love Him” (5:54). These verses do not present love as a result or metaphor. They show it as a real and volitional inclination toward specific qualities and individuals. They use the same verb for divine and human love, demonstrating a symmetrical relationship that makes little sense if the term is reduced to “He rewards.”
In Atharī theology, love (al-maḥabba) is a real attribute of Allah. He wills good for His servants, draws near to them, honors them, and grants them mercy and reward. It does not stem from need or deficiency. Rather, it occurs in a way that is unique to Allah and rooted in His wisdom and justice. The Prophet ﷺ said, “When Allah loves a servant, He calls Jibrīl and says: ‘I love so-and-so, so love him,’” and this love spreads to the heavens (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim). This is not a mere reward. It is divine inclination, divine approval, and divine nearness.
Next is mercy. It permeates the Qurʾān: “My mercy encompasses all things” (7:156), “Your Lord has prescribed mercy upon Himself” (6:54), and “Indeed, Allah is to the people Most Merciful” (2:143). These statements affirm mercy as something belonging to Allah, not merely something He does. The phrase “prescribed mercy upon Himself” demonstrates that this attribute is not incidental but essential. It is something constant and defining. The Qurʾān does not say, “Your Lord prescribed that He will do good.” It says mercy, and it means it.
In Atharī theology, mercy (al-raḥmah) is a real attribute of Allah. He wills to bestow grace, benefit, and relief upon creation. It includes compassion and action, such as forgiving sins, providing sustenance, and protecting the weak. His mercy is majestic and purposeful. It is not emotional fragility. Allah’s mercy is tied to His wisdom. It does not stem from vulnerability or need. It is generous without being weak and gentle without being inconsistent with divine majesty. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Indeed, Allah is gentle and loves gentleness in all matters.”(Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim). How can Allah reward gentleness as an abstraction?! The Prophet ﷺ also said, “Allah is more merciful to His servant than a mother to her child,” and, “Allah created one hundred parts of mercy, sending down one to the earth and reserving ninety-nine for the Day of Judgment.” These are not poetic devices. They are statements of real qualities.
Then comes anger. Allah says, “They incurred the anger of Allah” (2:61), “The wrath of Allah is upon him, and He has cursed him and prepared for him a great punishment” (4:93), and “They returned with wrath from Allah upon them” (2:90). In 4:93, wrath, curse, and punishment are listed as distinct items. Wrath precedes the punishment and justifies it. It is not reducible to it. In the hadith of intercession, the Prophet ﷺ says, “My Lord has become angry today in a way He has never been angry before, and will never be angry again” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī). This shows anger as a dynamic, time-bound divine action, not a static, eternal will to punish. Moreover, this hadith shows that Allah’s anger on the Day of Judgment occurs before hell is exacted. Likewise, Allah says, “So when they enraged Us, We took vengeance upon them, drowning them all” (43:55). Shaykh Ibn al-‘Uthaymīn, in his Mukhtaṣar Lumʿat al-Iʿtiqād al-Hādī ilá Sabīl al-Rashād, argues that it is unreasonable to interpret divine anger in this ayah merely as vengeance or punishment. He says:
الله تعالى غاير بين الغضب والانتقام فقال تعالى: (فَلَمَّا آسَفُونَا) أي أغضبونا (انْتَقَمْنَا مِنْهُم). فجعل الانتقام نتيجة للغضب.
“Allah, Exalted be He, made a clear distinction between anger and vengeance, saying: ‘So when they enraged Us (āsafūnā), We took vengeance upon them (intaqamnā minhum).’ He thus made vengeance the consequence of anger.”
According to Atharī theology, anger (al-ghaḍab) is a real attribute of Allah. He wills what is appropriate for those He is displeased with, such as punishment or rejection. It does not stem from emotional instability. Rather, it befits His Majesty and is completely free from human-like agitation or deficiency. It is perfect, just, and measured.
Lastly, jealousy is often overlooked in theological discussions, yet affirmed in the most authentic collections. The Prophet ﷺ said, “Allah is more jealous than anyone, and His jealousy is provoked when a believer does what He has forbidden” (Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī and Muslim). This attribute, while uncomfortable to the rationalist mindset, is clearly present in revelation.
In Atharī theology, jealousy (al-ghayrah) is Allah's real and praiseworthy attribute, referring to His protective honor and intolerance of immorality and indecency. It is the divine basis for prohibitions like fornication, shameless speech, and open sin. Unlike human jealousy, which may be driven by insecurity or rivalry, Allah’s jealousy is rooted in purity and divine justice. It is not a weakness. It is not possessiveness. It is protective perfection.
The Ashʿarī response to all this is to insist that these attributes cannot be real because they resemble human qualities. But the Qurʾān already addresses this fear directly: “There is nothing like unto Him, and He is the All-Hearing, All-Seeing” (42:11). This verse affirms divine attributes while negating resemblance. It does not urge metaphor. It does not urge reinterpretation. It commands belief in what has been revealed without assuming that similarity in wording implies similarity in essence.
The Prophet ﷺ and his companions never reinterpreted these names. They did not say that Allah’s love is a metaphor, or His mercy is policy, or His anger is code for judgment. They affirmed them as they came.
In trying to protect Allah from imperfection, the Ashʿarīs unintentionally deny Him what He affirms. In trying to defend His transcendence, they compromise the clarity of His speech. But revelation does not need rescuing. It needs submission. The safest path is to believe what He has said about Himself as He intended without seeking to edit, reinterpret, or rationalize it.
Allah says He loves, so we say He loves. He says He is merciful, so we say He is merciful. He says He becomes angry, so we say He becomes angry. He describes Himself as jealous, so we affirm His jealousy. All of these in a way that befits Him, without likening them to creation and without stripping them of their meaning.
Recommended Reading:
Allah’s Divine Attributes Discourse - Islamic Discourse