Imam al-Sanusi said: “It is religiously obligatory for every legally accountable individual (mukallaf) to know what is necessary

1. Questions & Answers in Islamic Theology by Shaykh Ramzy Ajem
WHAT IS LOGICAL POSSIBILITY WITH RESPECT TO GOD?
Shaykh Ramzy Ajem answered:
Imam al-Sanusi said:
“It is religiously obligatory for every legally accountable individual (mukallaf) to know what is
necessary, impossible and possible with respect to the reality of our Lord, Majestic and
Eminent.”
Possible is one of the three logical categories whose ruling is not absolute, meaning that its negation
and affirmation (asynchronously) does not entail a logical absurdity nor a necessity, such as the ruling
that vaccines prevent Covid-19, or that human beings live after death, or that God will reward whoever
worships Him. Nothing created, be it physical or metaphysical events, is logically necessary or
impossible. The cosmos and everything that it contains exists because it emerged into existence after
non-being, and as such it is among God’s acts. Imam al-Sanusi said:
THE POSSIBILITIES
As for what is possible regarding His reality
Most High, it is:
(1) Doing or not doing anything possible.
: َ َ َ ِ ِ ُ ِ َ ‫ا‬ ‫ا‬َ‫و‬
.ُ ُ ْ َ ْ‫و‬‫ا‬ ٍ ِ ْ َ َ ُ ْ ِ َ
Explanation
After listing the necessary attributes of divine perfection and the impossibilities entailed by their
opposites, Imam al-Sanusi lists what is logically possible of God, namely, “doing or not doing anything
possible”. God’s existence alone is necessary and beginningless, and every other existent is possible and
originated, as Imam al-Ghazali states in his Qawa’id al-Aqa’id:
“Everything besides Him, be it human, jinn, angel, devil, heaven, earth, animal, vegetable,
mineral, substance, accident, intelligible, or sensory, is contingent, and was brought into
existence through His power after not being, created by Him after it was nothing.”23
If something possible (mumkin) exists, it is because God created it, and His “doing it or not doing it” is
not necessary but possible. In other words, there is no obligation upon God to create anything possible
or to leave it in non-existence. The creation exists because of His generosity –not because of it being
incumbent upon Him or due from Him.
23
Keller, Nuh Ha Mim. “Al-Ghazali’s Foundations of the Tenets of Faith”. Reliance of the Traveller, Revised Edition, Amana Publications.
Notes from the Sanusiya Course 2022 by Shaykh Ramzy Ajem