Shaykh al-Akbar ق’s contra-kalām view of involuntarist or non-arbitrary will of God "Inshāllah, I will clarify in this book that Allāh, exalted is He, wills without choice and that there are no possibilia in all existence since it’s either necessary or impossible. Each time

that the expressions “If We wanted” or “if He wanted”, are to be found in the Qur’ān, the conditional preposition that accompanies the Divine Will (mashiyya), expresses an impossible hypothesis because it’s linked to a pre-eternal being [in Divine knowledge] of which

non-existence is impossible. So the contrary to His Will is impossible. The Divine Will isn’t understood in the way of its common understanding but in the way of its real understanding. So, whenever I mention in this book what indicates possibility, or choice, or planning — or

other matters that the realities reject — I only do so for the sake of conventional communication and explanation, as is customary. The one grounded in reality knows the proper status of these topics. With him, I speak in terms of realities, and to him, I address my discourse. As

for the one who does not rise to the level of these realities, he interprets the speech according to the familiar conventions of his custom, which he imagines to be reality. Thus, each of the two accepts the matter — but from two different perspectives, with all the difference

that lies between their respective understandings."

On p. 78 and 100, he also brings Imām al-Ghazāli ق’s quotations on this alām being the best possible creation, and God wouldn’t have done otherwise, which implies the exact same view of Shaykh al-Akbar ق that in reality there are only necessaries and impossibles, not possibles.

Urdu translation of Shaykh al-Akbar’s words.

— Inshāh ad-Dawā’ir (trans., ed. and comm. by Abrār Ahmed Shāhi), pp. 58-61.