Through Force or Faith? — Page 230
?— A Reply to Pope Benedict XVI 230 erroneous and denigration. ( Al-Fa s l fil-Milal wal-Ahw ā wal-Na h l, vol. 2, Chapter Ta’dīl wa Tajwīr, p. 105, Beirut 1982) Therefore, despite saying that in principle God can punish for pious deeds and reward for sins because He is the Potent and He is the Proprietor; He can do whatever He wills. Then, Imam Ibn H azm himself admits that He shall not do so because He has Himself refused to do so. Thus, the whole argument is conjectural and hypothetical the purpose of which was to refute Mu’tazilites. Similarly, there is no doubt that Imam Ibn H azm has exaggerated in some matters. He has advanced this hypothesis that God desires that some men should commit idolatry because if He had not so desired, there would have been no idolater in the world. ( Al-Fa s l fil-Milal wal-Ahw ā wal-Na h l, vol. 2, Chapter Hal Sh ā All ā h ‘Azz wa Jall…) But even here, in the same chapter of the same book, he has explicated that God is not pleased that anyone should commit idolatry. Therefore, his contention seems to be that God desired that some people should be pious and some impious, some should believe in Him and others should commit idolatry. If it was not so, the entire world would have been Unitarian and there would not have been a single idolater. But God is not pleased with idol- atry, therefore He has sanctioned punishment for idolatry. If the Pope had not quoted from a tertiary source (Khoury, Arnaldt, Ibn H azm) and instead had studied Ibn H azm directly by following the fundamental principles of proper research, he would have saved himself from this gaffe. We have not yet found any reference