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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books The Learnings of the Glorious Quran The Extent of Divine Potency and Will The Relation Between Power and Will Among the theological discussions concerning Divine Power and Will, there is the question whether everything does fall within the circle of the Divine Power, or whether the Divine Power covers only certain things, or whether the things which belong to Divine Power also belong to His Will.

That is, is not there any limitation of Divine Power, as we frequently read in the Qur'an: "Surely Allah is capable of (doing) everything."[^145] Regarding the Divine Will there are many ayahs to the effect that Allah does whatever He wills. It is not that if Allah willed something it may not be implemented. The Divine Will is ever-effective, and whenever the implementation of something is willed by Allah it would be carried out.

The following are examples of such ayahs: "...Allah does what He Wills"[^146] and: "...surely Allah does what He Wills"[^147] Allah Does not Will the Impossible In this respect many questions are put forth. For example: Can Allah produce impossible things? Can He create another Allah like Himself? Can He grant to one of His creatures all that He has, such that He loses everything? Can He contain a mountain into an atom or, say, in a hen's egg? and so on.

That is, are we to imagine that the meaning of saying: He is capable of doing everything, is that He must be able to do all such things, and that if He could not, it would mean that His ability is limited? In order to give a logical answer to these questions, a brief explanation of the concept of ability would be necessary.

By saying that somebody is capable of doing something, or creating something, we mean that something is creatable or can be done, but it only needs a power to bring to existence this existable and implementable thing. To put it in a technical term we say that a power-dependent must be a possible being. Ability means doing what is possible to be done. The conclusion is that ability does not cover the impossible.

To ask: "Is it possible to create the impossible?" is a wrong question, because it contradicts itself. If it is impossible to exist, how can it be expected to exist? In other words, ability is dependant on the "thing". The impossible is not a "a thing", it is "nothing". Thus, when we say that Allah is able to do "everything", we must remember that the impossible is not a "thing".